Land Before Time: Battle Network
by Sora W.T.K
Summary: A brand new universe where the Land Before Time world is the network. Join our friends in a brand new world as they try to prevent an evil organization from reviving an old project and taking over the network.
1. Prolouge

The year is 200X…

"Let's see…How did I do this monthly maintenance? Geez, can they make these any more complicated?"

The advancement of technology over the years has prospered the current age to the network…

It is known as the Network Age…

"Alright…Shut down…Booting up maintenance program…"

Everything in the world is now run with technology; appliances are now run by the easy access of the net, a humungous cyber world that runs all around the world…

"Maintenance program booted up…Problem scanner online…Begin!"

The net…A complex cyber world where everything is hooked up to…In order for officials to keep track and patrol the net from threats, they all wield a PET…

"Problem scanner complete…No threats detected…"

PETs are similar to a cellular phone, yet they serve as both a phone and email, they also double as textbooks and newspapers…

"Net Navi scanning…Commencing!"

Net Navi is a humanoid AI program installed in every PET; they perform all sorts of tasks on the network for its human owner…They also become the best friend of the owner…Together, they go up against viruses in the net, a form of defense called Virus Busting…

"Net Navi scanning complete…No abnormalities detected…"

Viruses run rampant in the Cyber World, therefore all Net Navis and their owners, Net Ops, must work together and delete these viruses that try to delete the Net Navi with the use of their battle data programs, called Battle Chips…

"Everything seems to be in order…Now to reboot and boot up my Net Navi…"

The future seems bright with all these privileges, but as privilege as it seems there is also danger…

"PET reboot……Net Navi boot up……"

Viruses have always been there, but recently they have been increasing…But Net Officials have been keeping them at bay…So far, there has been nothing to worry about…

"Net Navi boot up complete…"

But lately…Net Crimes have been coming up very frequently recently…

"Maintenance complete…Morning, Littlefoot…"


	2. Beginning

"Gah, I can't believe I'm late again!" A voice cried out in the quiet morning in the town of Garden City, followed by huffs and puffs of a running human. "Last time I decide to press snooze on my alarm clock to get an extra five minutes of sleep!"

A young boy, 14 years old, races to his destination in quite a hurry, such hurry that he's still putting on his accessories. Holding a blue wristband in his mouth and using his free hands to strap his backpack unto his back, one arm through one arm strap and the other in another, fully getting his backpack on and taking his wristband out of his mouth and strapping it to his left wrist. "Gotta hurry! Classes start in…" He pauses as he brings up one arm to look at his digital watch, "5 minutes!" He gasps, mentally kicking himself. "Oh man! I'm not gonna make it!"

The young boy sports a pair of long black jeans; a short sleeved red shirt with a black backside, under that shirt dons a long sleeved gray undershirt. His hair is a dark-brown color that's neatly combed back with a short ponytail on the back of his head. His eyes are a nice pair of ocean blue, skin color a fair mix of black and white. On his shirt is pinned a white pin with a red line bordering it, the school logo of a blue orb with two rings diagonally around it on both sides with a lighter blue silhouette of an animal's paw in the background in the upper left corner of the tag. On the lower right of the tag has his name printed on it: 'Kaden'. Below his name lie his student serial number and a barcode to access his classroom past 8 AM, the time when classes start.

'_And it's 7:56 AM! Unless I take a shortcut, I'll get there at around 8:05 AM!'_

Kaden has to think of something, fast! He looks around the city, currently he's running through the shopping district of the city, this early in the morning the district is quite empty with shops getting ready to open for the day, but in the afternoons and late nights, this place gets crapped by teens and adults alike. Thinking back, he remembers something he found early during summer vacation, a little shortcut that involves jumping over a few fences and through a pipe longed abandoned when they installed the new path in the sewer system. It helps avoid going down the spiral staircases that leads from the shopping district to the busy business district where at this time in the morning it gets really crammed, making it a bit hard to cross if you're in a hurry. After the business district there's the train station, the train takes you from Garden City to the busy buildings of SciLab, where PETs and Net Navis are daily studied, upgraded, and created. If he takes the shortcut, he'll have more of aerobics moves to do but it'll save time.

'_And it's my only chance; doing so could cut a few minutes!'_

Kaden looks around, spots his opening and goes for it. Hopping to his right and running down an alley, spotting his first fence in front of him. Spotting a sealed box, he jumps onto it and jumps over the fence, landing on the other side and continuing his run. Suddenly, the minute he got out of the alley he runs out of ground, a ledge with a six foot drop is there in front of him. But not stopping, Kaden jumps down and lands in a crouching position, his mind jarring as he forgot how hard the drop was. Without stopping for a breather, he continues running, zig zagging through alleys and random civilians in the way, jumping over low fences.

'_7:58 AM! I'm gonna make it by a hair!'_

Just as he turns a corner…

_BAM!_

"Aaagh!"

"Ow…" Kaden grimaces as he rubs his head, whoever he ran into it sure knocked him to the ground.

"Watch where you'r- Oh Kaden!" An adult, deep male voice rings out, "I'm sorry about that, are you OK?"

Kaden opens his eyes and looks up, seeing a broad, tan adult getting up and holding his hand out to Kaden for a helping hand. "Oh, Mr. Haruko. I'm sorry, I didn't see you." He apologizes as he takes Haruko's hand and is pulled up unto his feet.

"Not a problem." Haruko answers. "Part of the blame was my own. Being so busy carrying this package that I wasn't looking where I'm going." He explains while looking down at the box he was carrying, all of the stuff that was inside is now scattered all over the ground.

"Sorry, I was quite in a hurry myself." Kaden apologizes, crouching down to help Haruko in picking up the scattered stuff. He picks one of them up and looks at it, a display case with two battle chips inside, Cyber Claw code S, and a TreeStar code T. "Wow! Nice battle chips!" He exclaims, his eyes wide, impressed. "Cyber Claw can do a lot of damage! And code S, pretty rare code!" He continues while getting up. "And TreeStar can heal 50 of your Net Navi's damage while giving it a 5 second of invincibility."

"I see you've been keeping up with your studies." Haruko complements, gently taking away the battle chip display from Kaden's hand and placing it back into the box along with the other supplies he was carrying. "Tell me, how's your little errand to get your own PET and Net Navi going?"

Kaden sighs, "Not so good…I don't have enough money to get my own PET…Much less my own Net Navi…" Kaden looks at Haruko's wristwatch, and he's suddenly remembered what he was doing in the first time. "Oh crap!" He curses, looking at his own wristwatch. "8:00 AM! Oh no! I'm so late!" He runs past Haruko in blinding speed, crying out as he runs. "Sorry to leave like this but I gotta get to school! See ya around Mr. Haruko!"

But by the time Kaden got to school and scanned in his tag's barcode to enter his classroom, it was already 8:05 AM. Kaden has just opened the classroom door to a class already going underway, the teacher paused her class session and looks at Kaden, giving a soft glare. "You're late…"

Kaden froze, looking around at the classroom and practically sweating, embarrassed at this outcome. "I'd like to have a word with you after class." The teacher spoke, Kaden just mentally kicked himself. "Aw man!"

* * *

"I'm so sorry Mrs. Inari…" Kaden apologizes, sagging on the chair. "I messed up again with my alarm clock and along the way I bumped into-"

Mrs. Inari, Kaden's homeroom teacher, cuts in. "Kaden, your tardiness is an issue, but that's not the case of why I told you to stay after class," Mrs. Inari pauses as she sits on a chair next to Kaden. "The problem is about you being Net Navi-less. Kaden, you're just beginning 9th grade, and it's from this grade and beyond that you're required to have your own PET. This is the last day of the first week of school, and next week we're beginning classes where you'll need a Net Navi."

Ms. Inari sighs, pausing slightly as she sees the emotion in Kaden's eyes. "These are the most important classes of your grade. If you can't take them because you don't have a Net Navi, you'll have to be held back a year."

Kaden gasps and shakes his hands. "No no! You won't have to! I'll have a Net Navi by next week! I assure you!"

* * *

Later after school, at Garden City's National Park…

"Aw who am I kidding! I can't get myself a Net Navi by next week!" Kaden complains, lying on a grassy hill on his back with his hands behind his head, staring at the sky. Next to him lies his best friend, they have known each other since Kindergarten, his name is Jason. "I'm gonna be held back for sure!"

"Aw, don't feel bad Kaden." Jason encourages, getting up in a sitting position. "I'm sure we'll come up with a way to get you a Net Navi and a PET by next week."

"I dunno…" Kaden responds, mentally making shapes with all the clouds that he sees in the sky while he talks. "They're not cheap…I can't make enough money for one in the weekend even if I took a full time job…"

""_Well, maybe you could perhaps take a loan from the bank and buy a PET and a Net Navi."_" A familiar voice of a child with a hint of an electronic tone emits out of nowhere. "_"And then pay off the loan little by little."_"

Jason blinks, reaches back to a small carrying case strapped to his belt and takes out a blue electronic device, holding it by the handle bar and looking at the screen. Jason's PET is blue in color, and like all PETs it has a 4.3 inch screen in the middle, to the right there's a slot to insert battle chips, below the screen are three buttons, one to scroll through the PET menus, the other to confirm commands, and the last one on the left is to cancel commands. To the left of the screen is a cover which can be slide off to reveal the jack-in cable plug-in. On the screen there's a familiar light-brown dinosaur-like Net Navi with a bit of a long neck, dark brown shoulder pads, a crest on his chest of a LF mark. This Net Navi, though the shape of a familiar longneck dinosaur, it stands on two legs and has two arms like a human.

"Um…That's not really gonna happen, Littlefoot." Jason responds to his Net Navi's suggestion. "We're too young to even have our own credit cards, let alone get a loan."

"Or…" Kaden begins, grinning from ear to ear and slowly bringing his hand over to Jason's PET. "Or maybe I could borrow your Net Navi, your period with the PET is second period while mine will be the fourth period."

"Don't even think about it, Kaden." Jason responds, retracting his PET from Kaden's hand. "Those types of classes register your Net Navi, security reasons."

""_Besides, if they process the both of you using the same Net Navi, you could get in a lot of trouble."_" Littlefoot warns them, opening up a file in the PET, showing the statistics of the program they use for the classes which requires the use of the Net Navis. "_"As you can see, they register each of our signatures with their advance scanning technology; it's around the latest 20.101 Net Scanner series. It can scan us to the core and even find out if we have malicious programming that even we can't scan ourselves."_"

Kaden sighs. "Great…Now I'm gonna be held back a year…This stinks…"

* * *

Later off into the afternoon, the shopping district of Garden City is overflowing with life, everyday people coming in and out of stores buying their necessities and of course, going into the local Battle Chip and PET store for net battling in the store's Battle Simulators, buying and trading battle chips to improve on their skills and strategies, and of course making new friends.

Kaden slowly walks into the shop, his hands tucked in his pockets absently looking around the shop; hundreds of different battle chips stand behind a shatter-proof display glass, their prices placed on the lower left corner of the chip. Battle chips aren't too expensive with their strong necessities to defend their Net Navis in the net from viruses and outlaw Net Navis and their Net Ops. He looks at the Battle Simulator machines; there are about 6 of them, 4 of them taken for net battles. Some Net Ops like net battling for fun, but others who are really into this sort of stuff bet battle chips, and the loser has to give the winner a battle chip of the winner's choice. Not many Net Ops like playing like that, even Kaden made a promise never to net battle with those stakes.

'_And you'll have to put my life in danger to get me to battle with those stakes…'_

"Hey! Kaden!"

"Hm?" Kaden turns to where the voice called, "Mr. Haruko!"

Haruko, the man Kaden bumped into earlier this morning, is the owner of the shop. Ever since he was little he was big into this sort of thing. Ever since he got his hands on a PET and a Net Navi of his own, net battling and collecting battle chips have become his life. His PET is top notch updated, his Net Navi is upgraded with some of the best Navi Customization programs in the market, heck he can beat anybody within a few strong strikes, and even hitting his Net Navi isn't so easy either with his top notch choices in his Navi Customization program. Haruko have customized his Net Navi so well you can basically call his customization the Three Horn Pack. Haruko has really made a great reputation of being the best net battler in the shop, _his _shop.

"How's it going, Kaden?" Haruko greets, leaning over the counter to have a chat while Kaden approached him. "You rarely step in here. Going for that Net Navi you always wanted?"

Kaden sighs. "I wish…Mrs. Inari said if I don't have a Net Navi of my own for next week, I'm gonna be held back a year. And I can't possibly get enough money for a PET, let alone a Net Navi, by next week."

"Dang, sounds tough…" Haruko grimaces, scratching the back of his head. "Wish I could help you, but I'm afraid I can't give you a PET and a Net Navi for free. If I do that, it could ruin me with profit loss, and I'll even have other Net Ops and clients come through the door complain to me about it."

Kaden nods. "I know, I'm not expecting like that either…"

Suddenly, Kaden thinks of an idea. "Hey! You know, your father works at SciLab! Can't he help you?"

Kaden shakes his head. "No, we barely see each other enough as it is. He's so busy, I mean, he's not of a high importance as the scientists who invent and work on the PETs and Net Navis, but he is pretty busy." Kaden sighs and looks at the PET models under the display case of the counter Haruko is leaning on. "He just works in checking out for bugs in the PETs and on the upgrade programs, it's not a high rank in the list. And…Well, aw I doubt he'll ever get his hands on a PET for me at the low rank that he is…And…" Kaden looks up at Haruko from his crouched position. "I don't actually dare in asking him for money to get myself a PET. I prefer getting things with my own money…"

"Hm…Good point." Haruko nods, but then a racket in the Battle Simulators section of the shop erupts as three Net Ops are bossing the other around. Kaden turns to face at the racket. It's the three Orund brothers again, each of them has pretty agile Net Navis, and they would win net battles by outwitting their opponents and then going in for the victory with an insane combination of battle chips of the same code. They just won a 3 on 3 team battle, and now they're forcing battle chips out of the losers, as if they agreed to it in the first place.

"You lost, kid! Now where's our battle chips!" The oldest one, Haru, demands, his two brothers ganging up on the losing team.

"What are you talking about!" One of the losing team asks, unable to believe how the winning team is acting. "We never agreed to play like that!"

"Heheh! Don't you know!" The youngest one, Jiro, asks, smirking as he stands with his two older brothers. "We're the Orund brothers! We always play for keeps! Now hand over those chips!"

"Hey! You three!" Haruko calls out. The call makes the Orund brothers turn their heads to face at Haruko, who is getting out from behind the counter and approaching them. "How about we make this interesting…" Haruko begins as he reaches to his PET strap on his belt and takes out his PET, the design and model is the same one as Jason's but in the color orange. "You net battle me. And if I lose, you three get a free product of your choice from my shop."

"Huh!" Kaden gasps, looking at Haruko. He knows Haruko is good, but is he good enough if this turns into a 3 on 1?

"But if I win…" Haruko continues. "You three will be prohibited to net battle here for a whole week." Haruko smirks, flipping over the cover of his PET's plug-in cable and extends out the cable, holding it by the plug-in connector. "What do you say?"

The Orund brothers look at each other, they know how well a net battler Haruko is, but they obviously couldn't pass on a chance of a lifetime such as this one! If they win, they get a free product of their choosing! Each!

Haru grins, stepping in with his gray PET. "OK Mr. Haruko, you're on!" He extends his plug-in cable back. "Jack in! Hyp! Power up!" He plugs in his PET to the Battle Simulator system.

"Jack in! Cera! Power up!" Haruko is second to plug his PET in.

Inside the battle arena, projected through a holographic arena inside a circular glass globe on top of the system, a humanoid light-brown figure begins to materialize. A tan figure with blunt claws begins to form; a couple of blunt teeth sticking out of its snout, his hands gloved in a dark gray color, his feet in tan colored boots with blunt claws. On his back there's a dark brown broad line going from the tip of his tail up to his forehead, which separates in two thin lines and go down across his eyes and to his shoulders, where flat brown shoulder pads are. This is Haru's dinosaur hypsilophodon-type Net Navi, a leaf-eater type, his name is Hyp.

On the other side of the arena, another Net Navi, smaller than Hyp, begins to form. This one starts to already take an orange color form, the face forms first, the face resembles that of a three-horn; the small horn on the tip of the Net Navi's nose is a cybernetic energy horn colored light-blue. The torso is next, a yellow color takes over the chest and stomach area, a crest is on the right part of the chest with a C in the middle, while the back takes shape with the color orange, a tough looking spine-like accessory spawns from the back of the neck down to the back and ends where the tail starts. The arms are next, having lines of red going from the wrist up to the shoulders where much stronger looking shoulder pads than Hyp's take form with the red color, the Net Navi's hands are plain as Three Horn claws take over the tips of the fingers. The legs and feet are last, red-colored boots covers the leg up to the knee, blunt claws spawning at the end to complete the dinosaur Net Navi. Cera, Three-Horn type Net Navi, and her horns are the primary weapon.

"Huh!" Kaden presses his hands on the orb simulator glass and closes his head in. "Haruko, that's not your navi!"

Haruko chuckles. "I know. It's my daughter's. I let her borrow my Net Navi for the day while I took hers to upgrade it."

Kaden glances at Haruko, and then places his attention to the net battle. "This should be good…"

"Well well well, what do we got here?" Hyp ponders, his orange eyes glaring at his opponent standing in front of him. "I was expecting the bigger one, but you? A little three-horn like you? Against me? Hahah! You gotta be-"

"Are you gonna talk all day or are we gonna net battle?" Cera taunts, cutting off Hyp and getting him out of his arrogant little speech.

"Huh! Why you…" Hyp growls, clentching his fists in anger. "It's go time!"

Hyp charges for the attack, Cera puts her guard up and waits for it. Hyp rears back and throws a punch to Cera, but the three-horn Net Navi jumps aside and lets the punch strike nothing but cyber air. She makes a side-flip and lands in a crouched position facing Hyp.

"Attack Cera!" Haruko commands. "Ram him into the ground!"

"You got it!" Cera replies, getting up and charges in at blinding speed. Hyp turns his head and gasps, all he could see was an orange blur coming at him, and before he knew what happened, he was struck head-on against the chest by Cera's horn, knocking him off his feet and flying back unto the ground ten feet away.

"Dang it!" Haru curses, seeing the chest area blink in his Limb Damage Meter on his PET screen. Haru is surprised that one strike already got the torso part of the Limb Damage Meter already in the yellow. He fumbles around for a battle chip, pulling one out. "Get up Hyp! Bubbly Goo, Code M! Battle chip in!"

The battle chip was jacked into the PET and on Hyp's hand as he got up appeared a block of data, he extends his arm and from that block splashes out a blotch of mud, going right for Cera.

"A Bubbly Goo chip!" Kaden gasps. "If that hits Cera it'll blind her for about 15 seconds!"

"Heh! No problem!" Haruko grins, takes out a battle chip and slots it in. This causes Cera to cross her arms and from the ground erupts a block of ice, causing the mud to splat right on the block of ice and instantly freeze at the touch. From through the clear ice block, Hyp growls as Cera sticks her tongue out at him.

"A Shiny Wall!" Kaden was surprised the moment he saw the mud freeze at the touch of the ice block.

"A battle chip that erupts a frozen block of water from the ground and serves as a shield…" Haruko explains the chip to Kaned. "Any water substance that touches it gets frozen…And with a twist…"

Soon, Hyp's growl turns into a gasp as Cera shatters the ice block and the frozen mud flies right back at him in shards of ice. Hyp tries to get out of the way, but still phew of the shards of connect into him, damaging his torso, legs and arms. "Gaaaah!"

Haru is getting nervous, seeing his Net Navi flop to the ground and already seeing him beat, Haru should've expected this from a great net battler and customizer such as Haruko, but he didn't expect this Net Navi to be this strong seeing that it's not Haruko's actual Net Navi. "C'mon! Get up, Hyp! Don't lose to him, please!"

"Gugh…" Hyp grimaces, slowly picking himself up to his feet, the shards of ice still impaled in his body.

"Grrr…C'mon you two!" Haru turns to his two brothers. "Help me out here!"

"Hmph!" They yelped as they jumped from their brother suddenly turning asking for help. They took out their PETs, all the same color as Haru's, and took out their plug-in cables.

"Jack in! Mutt! Power u-"

"Jack in! Nod! Power u-"

"You two better not." Haruko warns, making the two boys stop in their places. "This is a 1 on 1 net battle. If you enter it's an automatic loss for you three." The two of them quivers, and as obedient puppies they put away their PETs and allow the net battle to resume as a 1 on 1.

"Dang it…" Haru whispers, he takes out his best chip and plugs it in. "Sharptooth Claws, code S! Battle chip in!"

Hyp's hands and feet are engulfed into blocks of data, and when they disintegrate Hyp's hands and feet are transformed into those of a ferocious and dangerous sharptooth, the dangerous meat-eaters.

"Delete her Hyp!"

Hyp charges, the changed legs serve as upgrades to his speed.

"Huh!" Cera gasps, surprised by this sheer difference in Hyp's speed. "Ow!" She cries as Hyp charges through and slashes her arm up. "Where'd you-Gaaaah!" She cries out again, her sides have taken a slash. "Grrr! Aaaagh!" She drops to one knee; her left leg took a good slashing.

"Heheh! I got her now!" Hyp mutters, turning around to go for the final blow.

"Haruko you better do something quick or Cera's done for!" Kaden advises, turning his head over to Haruko.

"You got it." Haruko replies, taking out a battle chip and slotting it in.

"It's over!" Hyp screeches, charging in for the final blow to Cera's head, and right when he slashes Cera suddenly disappears. "Huh!" Hyp screeches to a halt but drops forward unto his snout, he pulls himself up and looks around. "Where'd she go!"

"Up here icky breath!" Floating in the air floats Cera, unharmed by the attempted slash to the head.

"What!" Haru cries, "But how!"

"Area Steal." Haruko grins at Haru, showing the battle chip in his hand. "And now…" He switches to another battle chip, and slots it in. "Time for the finish! Earthshake, code E! Battle chip in!"

"You got it!" Cera confirms, landing unto the ground in a stomp and starting an earthquake in the arena, shattering and separating the ground, spires erupting from the ground and under Hyp. "Aaaaahh!" He screams as he flies through the air, landing hard onto the ground.

"Now…" Haruko begins as he takes out a chip and slots it in. "Three Horn Charge, code C, battle chip in!"

Cera poses and drops unto all four, kicking cyber dirt in the air with what it is now her front legs, and with a roar of a three horn, she charged, the horn on her nose shining in pure cyber energy as she points it right at Hyp. Hyp slowly got up and turned to Cera, but right before he could do anything to escape, it was too late.

_SLAM!_

"Gaaaaahhhh!"

Haru's eyes widen as the torso area of the Limb Damage Meter turned dangerously red, and then his PET's battle checker program shut down.

""_Hyp logging out."_"

And the net battle was over. Cera the victor.

* * *

Kaden was like a zombie walking back home from Haruko's shop, he was still amazed at how intense that net battle between Haruko and Haru was. Kaden was always fond of watching net battles and how intense they get, and he hoped he would join the fun soon. The Orund brothers pleaded with Haruko to not ban them from the shop for the week, Haruko laughed and decided not to ban them after all, as long as they behave or else they would be banned not only for a week, but forever.

'_Man…When I get my own Net Navi…'_

Kaden grins, already picturing the idea. He always wanted a flier for a Net Navi, he would get the strategy of flying high and zooming down for quick attacks and back up, and he would finish it off with an awesome flying-type battle chip. Either Beak Missile or Flying Kick, whichever of the two he could get his hands on, he'll be the best Net Op with a flier Net Navi!

"I can already picture it!" Kaden speaks to himself, enthusiastic as he clenches both his fists, jumping on a bench. "It would be so awesome! Sneak attacks from the air and zooming down to attack!" He continues, gesturing his hand like a flier and thrusting it down to his knee level in imitation of a dive attack. "Then zooooom! Up high again for safety!" He zooms his hand again in the air over his head. "Then it's all over after a while! Beak Missile, battle chip in!" He cries, gesturing of slapping in a battle chip in his imaginary PET. "Boom! My opponent logs out! Hahah! Sweet!"

Kaden grins, jumping down the bench and continuing his way back home, it's a 4 minute walk from the shop to his home, Garden City is divided by four districts: The Residential District, a good 10 mile of residential properties stretching from the north all the way to the south and turning to the west, making the east and south borders of the town. The Shopping District borders the Residential District, from north to south, and in the same middle and bordering the west is the Business District, where everybody who works in town goes. The town is huge, about a 50 mile radius, the best way to get around town is by the train, about four stations between the Residential and Shopping District, a few in the Residential District and a couple in the Business District.

"Hm?" Kaden stops at the outskirts of his home, spotting a mail truck, the GCUPS, coming to a stop in front of his home. Kaden races to his home, getting to his property at the same time the truck comes to a stop.

"Hey Kaden!" the mailman greets, getting up from the truck's driver seat and getting to the back of the truck to search for the mail.

"Um, hey Mr. Hiroshi," Kaden responds, standing to the side of the truck. "What are you doing with the mail route so late? You usually end it at around 6 PM, and it's almost 8 PM."

"Oh I got a little stuck with traffic and heavy mail." Hiroshi replies as he gets out from behind the truck with a package. "You know how it is these days."

"I guess." Kaden mutters, taking the package that Hiroshi hands over to him. "So you almost done with the route?"

"Oh just a few more blocks and I'm done." Hiroshi replies, sitting down on the driver seat and turning on the truck. "Can't wait to finish for tonight. See ya Kaden!"

"See ya Mr. Hiroshi." Kaden farewells as the mailtruck drives off down the street. "Hm, I wonder who this is from…" Kaden speaks to himself as he looks at the box's label as he opens the door to his home. "Hm…" Kaden blinks as he reads who's it from, setting the box on the table in the dining room. "It's from dad…"

And the package is for Kaden…

**TO BE CONTINUED…**

* * *

"On the next chapter of Land Before Time: Battle Network!"

"Kaden is an 9th grader without a Net Navi of his own! But what about that package he got from his dad? What could it be?"

"And it seems to be trouble brewing in the net when a couple of outlaw Net Navis begin spread viruses in the Residential District network!"

"And who's that sharptooth Net Navi with wings?"

"Find the answers on the chapter of Land Before Time: Battle Network!"


	3. The new Net Navi

"I wonder what it could be…" Kaden whispers to himself as his eyes examine the package from top to bottom. Kaden rarely receives anything from his father while he's away. And even if he does it's usually some little souvenir from his travels to other countries on business trips with the rest of the Scilab staff. But this box…This box is too big for a souvenir but not too big to be anything huge and expensive. Though of course, the size of the box never really means how expensive the item is that it's inside the box.

"Probably a new hard drive for my computer or new speakers…" Kaden tells himself as he walks around the wall and into the kitchen, opening the fridge to get himself something to drink. "Hmmm…" Kaden looks around the containments of the fridge, but fails to find any of his favorite drink. However, he settles for a cola. "Hey mom, I thought you said you were going out to the grocery store this afternoon!" He shouts as he opens the cola can and shuts the fridge door slowly. But, as the fridge door comes to a store, a note on the fridge catches Kaden's eye.

'_Out for groceries a bit late than expected. Be back around 9 PM.'_

Kaden turns his head to the owl clock on the wall above the kitchen sink; 8:07 PM. The clock was given to them by Kaden's grandma about 8 years ago before she passed away. Kaden was never fond of that clock, for each two seconds the chicken's eyes move back and forth as if guarding and dominating the place. And at each hour the owl's eyelids would light up a faint green color and start its hooting followed by a soothing little melody. When Kaden was 6 years old the owl's hooting and lighted up eyelids would scare him into crying or running back into his room, or sometimes both at once.  
'_And I hated it when that happens…'_

Kaden drinks his last drop of the cola and tosses it into the trash bin. He stretches his arms out and heads back into the dining room to the package, tearing off the tape that holds the package covers down and shut and taking away a bit of the receipt sticker on the top of it. On opening the package he is greeted by a bunch of little foam beans, practically all the way to the top border of the package. "Aw man, why does my dad always use so much of these?" Even though a dumb question after figuring out what's inside, Kaden still questions this on every package he opens that are flooded with these critters.  
'_And then to dig under them, these always leave a mess…'_

Kaden thrusts his left arm into the package and almost immediately feel something underneath the sea of foam beans. "Hello…What's this?" He mutters as he slowly pulls it out, trying to keep the mess with the foam beans at a minimum. As the top of what the box contained start showing up, Kaden's eyes widen as he sees and takes in the item's layout and coloring of the smaller box he's been pulling out of the package. Why a smaller box inside the package? "This can't be real…" Kaden mutters as he pulls the smaller box out of the package and stares at it, a stare that any person anticipating something would have on their face when they receive it.

The box Kaden is holding is nothing more than a PET box. Red and blue lines circling around the box surface with a picture of a black PET with a blue line outlining the screen, buttons, handle and the lense. Kaden was flabbergasted the moment he saw the words "PET" on the box, immediately knowing that his father just sent him something he really desired for as long as he can remember, plus it saves him from being held back a year. "Wow!" Kaden manages to break the silence around him, jumping once for joy and grinning from ear to ear as he keeps staring at the box. "Hahah! I can't believe it! My dad actually snagged a PET for me!" Kaden couldn't help but tilt the box to rip it open, but as he did so he finds a paper taped to the back of the box. Curious, Kaden takes the paper and reads what it says, a note written in his father's handwriting.

_I'm sorry I couldn't send this out to you sooner. Further testing and scans were needed on this version. Inside the box you'll find a pack of about 5 Battle Chips to get you started and the Custom Burn Disk containing the Net Navi data. Hope you enjoy your new Net Navi and notify me of any abnormalities or anything out of the ordinary occurs._

_Love,  
Dad_

'_Abnormalities…Must be a new type of Net Navi series. How cool! I'm gonna be one of the first Net Ops to own a new Net Navi series!'_  
Kaden is overwhelmed with excitement. He opens the box and pulls out the carrying box inside to reveal his brand new PET, the same model shown on the cover and everything. Kaden grabs the PET and takes it out, holding it in his hand grinning excitedly to be holding his very own PET. He slides the handle down for a better grip and lo and behold the PET's jack-in cable plug-in shows up, and like any PET it has a 4.3 inch screen in the middle, to the right the slot to insert battle chips and below the screen the three buttons to scroll through the PET menus, and to confirm and cancel commands.

"Aw man! I can't wait to get started on this!" Kaden cheers in excitement as he races up the stairs to his room after getting the Battle Chip pack and Custom Burn Disk out of the box. He's so excited he almost trips on his basketball he forgot at the hallway floor, but even though he fumbled he quickly recovered and continued down the hall and opening the door to his room. His room is comfortably large for a 14 year old; the walls are a nice combination of the colors green mint and peach cream, two walls of the same color. His full size bed lies next to his bedroom window as a 20 inch TV with two videogame consoles pose at one corner of the room in front of the bed, a beautiful wood dresser to the left of TV, a bookshelf next to the room's door and the rooms' usual closet to the right of the bed next to the bookshelf. Kaden closes the door behind him, grabs a remote on top of the dresser and presses a button while pointing at a machine on the roof over his bed, starting the air conditioning machine to cool off the room. He walked to his computer, which is sitting next to his bed on a computer desk, and rests his brand new PET, Battle Chips and Custom Burn Disk on the table and turns to his closet, opening it up, ducking low and lifting something off the closet floor and carrying it to the computer desk, setting it down next to the computer's mouse on an empty space on the desk.  
'_Gotta thank my dad for sending me this PET Customization Center machine in advance. Without it I can't do anything on the PET to get it to work, not even charge it up.'_

As Kaden thought about this he crouches down behind the computer to plug the machine up, bringing it up to life. The thing is an oval-shaped light blue machine with a white bar to point out the slot in the machine for the PET. To the left of the PET slot lies the power button of the machine while to the right there are two buttons, one to eject the PET and the other reset the machine. Kaden sits on the computer chair after plugging in the PET Customization Center machine on the computer and starts up the machine, going through the usual processes of installing the machine to work with the computer. And after turning on the machine along with the computer, it prompted to insert the PET. And without any hesitation Kaden plugs in his new PET into the machine.

"_Reading and scanning PET. Please Wait."_ The computer screen prompts, leaving Kaden with nothing to do but to tap his fingers on the desk.

"_No Net Navi detected."_ The computer obviously prompts. No duh.

Kaden takes the Custom Burn Disk and inserts it into the CD Drive of the PET Customization Center machine, prompting another window in the computer screen. _"Reading Disk. Please Wait."_

"Oy, this takes forever…" Kaden groans. Suddenly, a few seconds after reading the disk, another window pops out containing information about the disk.

_Program name:  
Version: 1.00.20  
Date last modified: 08 / 01 / 200X_

_RUN?  
Yes  
No_

"Rex?" Kaden whispers to himself. He finds that a strange name for a Net Navi. But of course, his friends have Net Navis with the name of Littlefoot, Ducky, Spike, Cera, and Petrie. Not to mention Haruko's Net Navi, Topsy, or Three Horn has he's known in the shop. Now that he thinks about it again, sounds like a pretty good name compared to those. "Let's get this started!" Kaden grins and clicks on "Yes," once again prompting another screen.

_Installing Net Navi into PET.  
Estimated Waiting time: 05:30_

"Oh you gotta be kidding me…" Kaden whispers as he sees that painful estimated waiting time. 5 hours and 30 minutes? That's torture for someone who has been waiting a long time to have his own PET! "Geez…They can't take THAT long…What did my dad gave to me, a dragon Net Navi with unsurpassed strength?" He jokes, suddenly chuckling to himself at the thought. He would be psyched to have such an overpowered Net Navi…But then again, that overpower could render the Battle Chips useless if it could win without any use of them.  
'_Ah well, better look at the Battle Chips to see what plans I can come up with them…'_

Kaden picks up the Battle Chip pack and rips it open, 5 Battle Chips falls onto his hand just like the letter said. He holds them up in one hand and the other to pick them up one by one to look at them.

The first Battle Chip is a short-range but powerful Battle Chip, Mega Fist code B; a common code, but a strong Battle Chip. "Hm! Nice!" Kaden grins, liking already his chips.

The second Battle Chip is a long-range chip, Cannon code A; a common chip and code, but usable. "This'll come in handy." Kaden comments, moving on to the next one.

The third Battle Chip is another common chip, Mini Bomb code B. "Hmm…" Kaden hums, looking at the chip. "I guess I can think of something for this one."

The fourth Battle Chip was another Cannon, code B. "Another one?" Kaden blinks. "Geez, not much of a Battle Chip pack for a flier…"

The fifth Battle Chip however, made Kaden yelp in surprise. "Whoa!" It's a Fire Water Battle Chip, Code M. This Battle Chip, whenever used, causes molten lava to spit out from the battlefield and heavily damage, if not delete, anything in its path.

"Two awesome Battle Chips, two good chips and one below average chip." He wasn't the luckiest kid in the world in getting all five chips to be mega awesome, but this arsenal will have to do. He has good long-range defense with damaging short-range offense.  
'_Now if that machine would hurry up and install that Net Navi…'_

Kaden looks at the computer monitor…

_Installing Net Navi into PET.  
Estimated Waiting time: 05:25_

'_Oh for pete's sakes!'_  
Kaden was getting inpatient; waiting sitting in front of this computer glued to the screen won't hurry up the process. Kaden suddenly got the urge to yawn, and he did so; leaning back to stretch out his arms and yawn as he looks at his clock, it's just 8:23 PM. For the last day of the weekend, Kaden is pretty tired to pull another late night like he usually does on Fridays, he couldn't help it. He gets up and jumps into bed, taking off his shoes with his feet as they make a thump as the shoes hit the ground. "Aw man…And I thought I would see my Net Navi tonight…" He talks to himself as he stares up at the white roof of his room. He sighs, "Oh well…Hopefully if the computer doesn't crash I'll see my Net Navi tomorrow…Then on to Haruko's shop…" With that, Kaden rolls over and closes his eyes with his chin resting on his pillow, giving in to sleep.

* * *

"Boss…" A tall young man with spiky hair stands in front of a rotatable chair. On the chair a figure sits, but unable to see his face as the chair is facing away from the man standing behind it.

"We have gotten word from SciLab…" The tall man starts, his face and half of his torso hidden in the shadows. "It seems that the program has been…Moved…"

"Hmph…Moved?" A dark and deep voice rises from the chair, the figure's arm coming into view as it rests on the arm handle of the chair.

"Yes…" The man continues. "Our spy just notified us that the program has been sent somewhere in Garden City…" The man pauses, waiting from a response from his boss.

"Hmmm…Go on…"

"He couldn't find to where in Garden City the program was sent to…" The man continues his respond, a nervous tone in his voice. "He was detected before he could find out and had to escape from the scene."

"…Tell me…" The figure sitting in the chair starts after a bit of a pause. "Our spy…Is he out of SciLab?"

The man nods. "Yes, he is waiting in front of the train station a few miles away from us, awaiting instructions."

The figure didn't respond until he held his arm up, holding what seems like a small detonator. "Good…" He presses the button, and not long after a loud boom echoes in the sky, forcing the ground to quake from the shock of the explosion. The man standing crouches down a bit to avoid a fall from the quake as he looks through the window the chair is facing, seeing smoke rising from the woods seen in the distance, no doubt where the train station is suppose to be.

"S-Sir…" The man stammers, getting up to his feet. "Wh-Wh-Why-"

"I booby trapped his PET with a bomb…" The man sitting in the chair, not turning to face his servant, begins his motives for blowing the train station up. "His PET signature might've been caught…And I will not take any chances of allowing the authorities to find us…"

"But sir…" The man starts as he stands upright, his stammer gone. "Wouldn't have been better to just hand him over to them instead?"

The man on the chair chuckles, unable to suppress it from that tone his servant had in his voice, a tone of caring. "Why do you ask? You fear one less sharptooth in our possession will weaken us? You fail to keep your faith on the HTP…"

The man gasps and takes a step back. He didn't want to mean that, he just thought that may have been a much easier solution than to just blow the spy's PET up along with the spy and the train station. He didn't mean to make his message to sound as if he doubts the HTP's dominance and power. "No sir! I didn't mean that! I…"

"Enough!" The man sitting on the chair shouts, sounding very annoyed. "Instead of apologizing you should go and search for that program…That program holds the key to succeed in attaining our goal…"

The man gulps, bowing at his boss. "Yes sir…I will sir…"

* * *

Morning has come. The sun starts its slow ascend up into the sky, giving the land a warm and orange glow as it takes up higher and higher in the sky. Outside of Kaden's window a tree is situated near the house, a bird couple has woken up from their nests and hopped to the end of the branch, starting their morning song for the gentle wake up call of the area. Though muffled, the bird's song pierces through the window and into the room, the sun's glow enter through the window and shine unto Kaden's sleeping face, who in return squints his eyes and covers his face with the covers, repelling the warm feeling from his face. It's 6:50 AM, a bit too early to wake up on a weekend.

""_Kaden! Kaden! Wake up, kid!""_

"Hmm…Wha…?" Kaden mutters as he slowly peaks from under the covers. "Who's there?" Though he sees nobody else in his room, he has the desire to ask the question.

""_Hahah, morning Kaden!""_ A young but deep voice emits out of nowhere, puzzling Kaden as he slowly gets out of bed_. ""I'm sorry to wake you up so early on a Saturday, but I couldn't help in waking you up.""_

Kaden rubs his eyes and takes another glance around his room, "Hmmm…Oh!" Then he remembers, "The PET!" Kaden eagerly jumps out of his bed and rushes to his computer, first thing he would set his eyes on were on his PET screen.

What he sees on his screen is a Net Navi alright, humanoid features and all with the usual dinosaur look, and this one is of a blue-green color and light-blue color from his chest, where a crest of a RX mark is, down to his stomach and down between his legs to the underside of what seems to be a tail behind him. Proudly open behind the Net Navi are his wings, from close inspection you can see the wings are not part of his arms but an actual separate bone for the wings. Many would say only dragons can have this sort of privilege, but this Net Navi shares it just the same. Dark blue oval shaped shoulder pads, razor-sharp looking claws on both hands and feet and quite nice looking dark blue eyes. But the detail that really stands out on this Net Navi is not only the claws and wings, but the Net Navi's face. The Net Navi's muzzle is squared-off, a face you would expect from the Net Navi Alimon series, Net Navis too strong for public that are now for official use only. But what's more unique about this Net Navi is a black line snaking over the Net Navi's right eye. A Net Navi isn't suppose to have a scar unless programmed by the creator for it to have one, and even if the Net Navi has a scar it would be of the same color the Net Navi is but a darker color. Now why would this Net Navi have a BLACK one?

""_Hey there,""_ The Net Navi greeted while putting up his left hand up in greeting, _""About time I get to see my Net Op.""_

Kaden blinks as he stares at the Net Navi. Did he just saw razor-sharp teeth in the Net Navi's mouth when he spoke? "Ummm…"

""_What's wrong?""_

"This must be a mistake…" Kaden lowly announces.

The Net Navi blinks. _""Huh? What is?""_

"You." Kaden points out as he points to the Net Navi. "Look at you; sharp claws and teeth? The Official Net Battle Rules and Regulations state that all Net Navis must be of the Leaf Eaters generation…But look at you, sharp claws and teeth."

The Net Navi shrugs, _""So?""_

"You're from the Sharptooth generation." Kaden points out, sagging on the chair. "When the first computer virus was created it was designed as a Sharptooth, and soon more virus creators followed in those footsteps and that's how the Sharptooth generation came to be." Kaden sighs, looking a bit disappointed.

""_Ah, I see where this is going,""_ The Net Navi grins, ""_I'm all over this though.""_ The Net Navi moves to the far right of the PET screen and opens a few documents, one in particular what seems to be a certificate. _""This certificate here is straight from your father himself, Dr. Homari. It proves that I'm on my full rights of being your Net Navi and to be treated as any Net Navi by the authorization of the Official Net Battle Rules and Regulations Committee.""_

"Whoa, are you serious?" Kaden exclaims as he leans closer to the PET to have a better look at the document. "Wow, this is awesome!"

The Net Navi nods as he closes the document and faces his Net Op, _""Yup. Besides, not all Net Navis from the Sharptooth generation are computer viruses. Some Officials use the Sharptooth generation as their Net Navis and you don't see them running around the Net wreaking havoc.""_

Kaden chuckles, "Yup, I can believe that." Of course he can, he has heard time and time again of about three Officials that have Sharptooth Net Navis of their own, and they seem to be in top control of themselves. Kaden keeps staring at his Net Navi, the wings behind him gives him an assuring feeling that he has a flier in his PET, but what other kind is he?

"So…" Kaden begins again. "What…What kind of Sharptooth are you?"

""_I'm more of in-between the Leaf Eater and Sharptooth generations.""_ The Net Navi begins as he opens up some documents, all of them statistics of himself. _""You can check my stats if you want to further study my functions, strengths and weaknesses.""_

Kaden grins; pressing one of the PET buttons and closes the documents. "Don't need to," He grabs his PET and pulls it out of the PET Customization Center machine and sliding down the handle cover to pull out the Jack-in cable plug-in, "I'm about to take you on for a test drive right now."

""_Whoa Kaden, I don't think you should do that without getting to know m-""_

But before the Net Navi could finish, Kaden was already underway. "Jack in! Power up!" And the PET was plugged in.

The Net Navi disappears from the PET screen in a light blue rectangle and travels through the Jack-in cable, a cyber tunnel with blue and green swirling lines in the eyes of the Net Navi, and in a dark-blue transport line the Net Navi touches down in the Cyber World, materializing in a crouched down position and slowly getting up.

The Net Navi looks around; the sky in the Cyber World is completely different from the sky in the Real World, in the Cyber World the sky is of a dark blue with a green thick line in the sky in an arc shape as a rainbow, orbiting around the Cyber World sky. The Net Navi looks down at the ground, this is Kaden's HP, where here the ground is transparent where you can see the very bottom of the Cyber World, which looks the same as the sky and can see the other side of the thick green line that orbits around the world.

""_Alright, let's get out there and do some virus busting.""_ Kaden's voice emits out of nowhere, most likely in the Net Navi's head as he stays connected to his PET.

"Right," The Net Navi agrees, turning around to the glowing light blue circle behind him which should transport him outside of the HP and into the real Cyber World.

""_By the way,""_ Kaden comments, _""I never caught your name.""_

The Net Navi smiles and looks up, "Name's Rex."

* * *

Everything seems fine, but outside the HP in the outside world of the Cyber World, two Net Navis stand in the middle of the Garden Net area, sector 1. These two Net Navis are from the Sharptooth generation, obviously the Velociraptor series. One of them raises a hand up and in front of him a light-blue square materializes and pops out two Sharpteeth viruses, the little meat eating Sharptooth types known to us humans as Compsognathus. The Net Navi who summoned them flicks his clawed fingers to a direction and the little viruses give off their cry and runs off that direction.

"This should be interesting." The first one declares. "If the spy told the truth, that program must be around here somewhere…"

"Yes, very." The second one, who summoned the two viruses, nods. "With all these viruses running around, he'll be sure to be found."

"We mustn't fail the boss." The first one turns to his partner. "Remember what happened to the spy and his Net Navi."

The second one shakes his head. "He had it coming…Triggering the alarm like that…"

* * *

""_Alright Rex, ready?""_

Rex nods at his Net Op. "Yup. But let's take it slow, I never been to the Net before."

""_Hahah! Got ya. Besides, this is Garden Net area, sector 1, should be secured enough.""_

"Alright," Rex shrugs, taking a deep breath. "Let's do this."

""_Roger!""_ Kaden must be grinning in the Real World, the Battle Chips ready in his hand. _""Let's do some virus busting!""_

Rex nods and takes short steps toward the teleportation circle, slowly stepping on it as he slowly dematerializes into a beam as he steps deeper into the circle until his whole being is dematerialized into particles and transports to Garden Net 1 area, ready for some adventure.

* * *

"On the next chapter of Land Before Time: Battle Network!"

"Kaden has a Net Navi of his own named Rex, a Sharptooth but a certified one."

"And their test drive turns into a real test of survival as they stumble on a virus riddled Garden Net area."

"Those two Sharptooth Net Navis are in huge trouble for doing this."

"Get ready for some virus busting on the next chapter of Land Before Time: Battle Network!"


	4. First battles

A dark-blue transport line touches ground and Kaden's Net Navi materializes in a standing position. Rex slowly opens his eyes and looks around the area. He is now in Garden Net 1. The floor the Net Navi is standing in is the usual dark-blue floor with paths branching everywhere, cyber plants strewn everywhere to resemble a Jurassic wildlife habitat. In front of him the path spreads apart in two lines thanks to a big tree and a line of Jurassic bushes.

One path takes him to a rectangular-shaped opening in a field of bushes while the other path stretches upward as a hill to a squared clearing above and stretches toward the west. Rex looks down at his feet. From his knees down it looks like he's wearing a pair of bulky boots, but at his ankle the 'boots' are cut down into a strap that goes down between his heel and feet around the soles of his foot, letting his four toes with razor-sharp talons stand out.

Rex looks beyond his feet to the ground he's standing on; spotting a yellow line that travels to the path on the left and continues down the path further along ahead. No doubt the line helps other Net Navis get to the Garden Square, where all Net Navis can gather in harmony to talk, shop and relax with their buddies.

Rex looks around, taking in on the cyber wildlife. He feels his cyber spirit lift as he looks at the 'nature' strewn around him, that feeling of happiness animals get when they're released to their home after years of being away from it. He blinks as his tail is brushing up against something, causing the Net Navi to turn to look at his tail touching the bush behind him. He could only chuckle and turn around as he takes a few steps forward and taking his feet off the transport to Kaden's HP. "Well, where to?"

_""I dunno, Rex.""_ Kaden replies. The Net Op ponders what to do first. Either just go directly into a Sharptooth's way and engage it in a Netbattle, or just go to Garden Square to see who's there at this time in the morning. Either way, it's fine with him. _""How about we go to Garden Square? I've only seen it twice with my friends' Net Navis and I loved going there!""_

"I thought you said you said you wanted to go do some virus busting." Rex chuckles as he starts following the yellow line on the ground, heading straight to Garden Square just two areas ahead. "Lost your nerve?"

_""Hey!""_ Kaden sounded to have taken offense of that remark._ ""I haven't lost my nerve! I just want to give Garden Square a visit, that's all.""_

Rex shrugs, "Whatever floats your boat." He continues down the yellow path to Garden Square at a slow pace, Rex wants to enjoy the scenery of the Cyber World for as much as possible. If a Net Navi with no knowledge of a Real World, it could mistake this place as the actual thing. The way the Net is designed to resemble a Jurassic wildlife environment, it looks realistic.

Back then the Net was stricter. The bushes, boulders and trees outlining the paths couldn't have been crossed; an invisible wall of sort blocked the Net Navi's path to continue through them. But a decade ago, with new minds and technology by SciLab's side, those invisible walls were broken down and the Net Navis could travel through the wildlife borders and out of the main paths, figuring out shortcuts and more freedom in movements when it came to exploring and virus busting. Though that new freedom wasn't all positive though, it also means more freedom for surprise attacks from the Sharpteeth viruses and the Net Navis would be in deep danger whenever out of the squares.

_""Remember to stay along the paths, Rex.""_ Kaden informs his Net Navi as he watches from the PET in the Real World. _""We don't wanna get lost around here.""_

"Relax," Rex assures his Net Op as he turns a corner on the main path, still taking his pace pretty slow as he still wants to take on the sights. "What could happen?" A second later after his remark something jumps from a bush in front of Rex and screeches at the Net Navi; the surprise causes the Net Navi to let out a cry of surprise as he falls back and lands in a sitting position, dragging himself back and away from the attacker as his mind catches up to him with what just happened as he sees three more of the same creature jump out from around the bushes and stalk over to him. Suddenly, another pops up from behind him with a screech and it opens its jaws and closes it down around Rex's left shoulder, gnawing and shredding at his shoulder pad and shoulder. Rex cries out in pain as the creature's razor-sharp teeth rake against his shoulder, little glowing light-blue dots fly out from the biting area as sparks as the teeth grind his shoulder.

_""Rex!"" _Kaden cries in horror as he watches his Net Navi being mauled by what looks like tiny Sharpteeth. Viruses!

Rex opens one eye to see the other four viruses in front of him snarling at him and nipping at his moving feet to bite at his toes. One manages to get close, but Rex isn't going to let them get another bite out of him. "Get…Off of me!" He shouts as he grabs at the Sharptooth biting into his shoulder, yanking it off and throwing it to its comrades in front of him. Rex then kicks at the closest virus, the sharp talons of his toes sink into the little Sharptooth's lower jaw and shredding it open into tiny light-blue glowing dots. And just like that the Sharptooth virus is deleted, breaking into four blue transparent squares and dematerializing into light-blue particles and disappearing. At least these are easy to delete.

_""Are you OK?""_ Kaden inquires as he watches his Net Navi get up while clutching his left shoulder.

"Yeah, I'm alright." Rex replies to his Net Op as he backs away from the viruses. He deleted one, but there are four of them left. And much to his dismay, more of them start to appear from behind him, to his left and to his right from the bushes outside of the main path. Now a total of eleven are surrounding him. "Compsognathus viruses!" Rex exclaims as he recognizes the Sharpteeth viruses. The Compsognathus viruses are about the size of a house cat. It has long legs, short arms and a long tail. They're all green color, the tip of their snout as sharp as a sword, which they can pierce their prey with it and their eyes a narrow red slit with a bright red dot moving back and forth from one corner of the slit to the other, as if scanning.  
_""C'mon Rex, we can take 'em!""_ Kaden exclaims eagerly, _""They're super easy to take out!""_

"Don't be so sure, Kaden." Rex warns as he eyes the viruses surrounding them. "They may be small and weak, but they're incredibly fast. And they're pretty dangerous in numbers." And his theory was right. Two of them jump for the attack, forcing Rex to jump aside and let them fly by, but two more jump and bite into Rex's exposed wings. Rex yelps and flicks his wings to the side to throw them up. And while he succeeded in that three from the left jump for a bite into Rex's arm. He moves his arm out of the way for the save, but one of the viruses' sharp snouts slash at Rex's arm, causing the Net Navi to shout in pain and clutch at his wrist where the snouts grazed and injured. Rex spots another jumping for a bite. "Here's something you'll bite more than you could chew!" Rex swings his arm out and strikes the virus down with his hand, his claws sinking into the virus' tiny body and cutting two gashes into the body, the strike sending the little virus flying and striking against a tree, deleting the virus right on the spot.

_""Good one, Rex!"" _Kaden congratulates, but soon things turn grim. More and more Compsognathus viruses show up, and what first was a concern about being outnumbered turned more to a concern about being overpowered. And no Battle Chips in Kaden's possession will delete this many._ ""Oh man, this is bad! Get out of there, Rex!""_

"Don't have to tell me twice," Rex grits his teeth as he dodges another virus attempt at biting him. He steps back and makes a sudden run, jumping over the gang of Compsognathus and makes a dash toward the next area. For as much as he knows viruses can't follow a Net Navi into another area. Each area is divided by reinforced firewalls; it allows Net Navis in and out of between areas but keeps viruses out.

The Compsognathus viruses aren't going to let him go easily. They all screech at the Net Navi and follow him. The Compsognathus viruses are close range attackers, using their teeth, claws and sharp snouts to attack with. They give chase to the Net Navi and they quickly gain up on him, he'll be easily outrunned in a matter of seconds.

Rex breathes heavily as he makes a dash toward the area's exit, seeing it at about half a mile away. While Rex has no trouble making the dash to it, he has to worry about the Sharpteeth viruses tailing him. Rex looks over his shoulder and gasps at the viruses who are quickly gaining, "Kaden! They're catching up!"

_""Oh man, that's not good!""_ Kaden sounds pretty worried. Of course he should be worried! His first virus busting with his own Net Navi and it's already going bad! _""C'mon, Rex! You got wings! Fly! Fly!""_

Rex looks up and shakes his head, "I can't! The cyber trees around here are too huddled up together! The branches aren't gonna let me flap my wings to fly!"

Rex cocks an eyebrow as he swore he heard Kaden curse, then a sigh is followed. _""Alright, guess it's time to heat things up! Fire Water, code M! Battle Chip in!""_

The battle chip, we could say, took possession of Rex as his eyes flashed the color red and he stops his running, turning around to the Compsognathus viruses and clenches his fist and raises it in the sky. "Haaahh!" With a cry Rex sends his fist down into the ground and shatters it, a crack traveling down to the viruses and underneath their feet. In a blink of an eye extremely hot magma erupts from the cracks and engulfs the whole pack of Compsognathus viruses. Their screeches and chirps of pain echoes through the magma as they get deleted on touch, magma practically shoot out of the cracks for a few seconds before dying down, making a small barrier of fire in front of Rex.

"Whoa!" Rex exclaims as he jumps in surprise, "Now THAT'S a battle chip!""

_""Haha, tell me about it!""_ Kaden sounded pretty proud of that maneuver, _""Told ya they aren't hard!""_

Rex grins and shakes his head, "Yeah well, I wouldn't get too cocky. The Compsognathus viruses oft-" He stops as soon as he turned around. Practically a group of about 39 Compsognathus viruses stands between him and the entrance to Garden Net 2. They all snarl and screech at Rex, who in return steps back from them only to be stopped by the barrier of fire the Fire Water chip created. Rex couldn't believe at how many of these viruses are at once. He was about to say that the Compsognathus viruses spawn very often and should get into Garden Net 2 before they do, but they shouldn't spawn THIS fast to show up and block his fast. Rex is flabbergasted. "Whe…Where are all these viruses coming from?"

_""I don't know…""_ Kaden replies, sounding very worried. _""This is bad, Rex! Jack out, now!""_

Rex nods, and was about to do it until the Sharpteeth pack stop their activities, all of them frozen in place staring at the Net Navi. "Huh…?"

The viruses open a path as if letting Rex to get to the exit of Garden Net 1, but these viruses aren't letting him get away. Instead, they're opening the path for two other Net Navis who stand behind the gang of viruses. The two Net Navis slowly approach Rex, flexing their razor sharp claws with a sneer across their long, flat snouts as they approach the winged Net Navi. These two Net Navis are modeled after the Velociraptor antirrhopus species, the Sharptooth generation.

"Sickleclaws…" Rex muttered. True that these Net Navis are modeled after the Velociraptor species, but these Net Navi series were named the Sickleclaws.

The one on the left's the tallest of the two, a brown Sickleclaw Net Navi with light-brown color from his lower jaw down to his stomach all the way to the tip of his tail. On both his arms are what appear to be dark-brown gauntlets with razor sharp claws at the tip of his three fingers. On both his legs are what appear to be dark-brown leg armors from the knee down to the ankle, his feet exposed with razor sharp talons on the tip of his four toes. The Net Navi has black spiky shoulder pads and a thick black line from his forehead down behind his head and down his back and tail, where stripes arch horizontally half a foot long at one foot apart between them, each stripe with a sharp spike protruding from them. On the Sickleclaw's chest, over his left pectoral there's a crest with a Z mark with two lines over the letter.

"Who do we have here?" He begins with an intimidating voice, "Seems like our little virus troops caught a live one…"

The one on the right chuckled. He's a black Sickleclaw Net Navi. Unlike his Net Navi partner, this Net Navi only has a gauntlet on his left arm, this gauntlet being black like the Net Navi. On both his legs are what appear to be black bulky boots rather than the leg armors like his partner, and like Rex's this Net Navi's boots are cut down into straps at the ankle that goes down between his heel and feet around the soles of his foot, letting his heel and toes stand out. Just like his partner, this Net Navi has sharp claws at the tip of his three fingers and the usual razor sharp talons at the tip of his four toes. He wears a pair of red shoulder pads with the right one with spikes just like his partner's shoulder pads. And resembling like his partner this Net Navi has a thick line from his forehead down the back of his head and his back to the tip of his tail with stripes arch horizontally half a foot long at one foot apart between them, only difference is the line's red and the stripes are not protruding as spikes. On the Sickleclaw's chest there's a crest with a B mark with two lines over the letter, resembling his partner's crest.

"I don't know, brother." He starts with a lighter voice than his partner to his right. "But isn't he a special one…A Sharptooth generation Net Navi."

"Aye!" The one on the left remarks while taking a step forward, provoking Rex to take a step back, "His Net Op must be a very good hacker to come up with this Sharptooth."

_""Hacker?""_ Kaden inquires, sounding offended by the Net Navi's statement. _""I'm not a hacker!""_

"Hahah!" The one on the left chuckles, "Sounds like his Net Op is quite a feisty one!"

"Yo, Zill." The one on the right calls out, addressing to his partner. "Maybe we should hijack this punk's Net Navi and show 'em to the boss. I think he might like this little present to complete his project."

Zill, The Sickleclaw Net Navi on the left, cocks an eyebrow at his partner. The boss is not to be bothered with that kind of idea, especially just to deliver another Sharptooth to him when he already has enough Sharptooth Net Navis at his disposal for the HTP members. Zill was about to tell his partner off about the idea until he gave Rex another glance, suddenly finding himself studying the Net Navi's body.

"Hmmmm," Zill hums as he studies the Net Navi's features. The claws, the talons, the teeth, the wings, there was something rather off about this Sharptooth, especially the scar over his right eye. "You know…That doesn't sound like a bad idea…" Zill grins as he watches Rex's eyes grow wide, clearly he didn't like the sound of the idea about being taken away from his Net Op to some unknown place. "Hahah! You're not so dense after all, Bull!"

Rex gulps. He tries to take another step back when the Compsognathus viruses standing behind him bite at his leg, that slight sting to his leg forcing the Net Navi to take a step forward and away from their mouths as they snarl and hiss up at him, their red slit eyes looking up at him, the bright red circle inside their eyes moving back and forth quite fast, warning their very hostile status.

"I don't like this…" Rex reports to his Net Op.

_""Rex, I'm sending you a Battle Chip.""_ Kaden whispers in a very low voice, audible enough for only Rex to hear.

"Got it…" Rex whispers back as he slowly hides his right hand behind his back, a Mini Bomb materializing in his hand as he keeps it hidden behind his back. Though the Compsognathus viruses see the Mini Bomb in his hand, they don't seem to make a big deal about it, as they're working on Zill and Bull's orders, and their orders right now are to stay put and just keep the Net Navi in place.

Zill grins as he out extends his left arm. Their orders are about to change, "Sic' him!"

At the word the viruses throw up their hisses and snarls, and like a race they all jump for a pounce onto Rex. Their jaws open and claws flexed ready for the attack.

_""Now!""_

Rex's eyes twitch and he takes out his right hand from behind his back to reveal the Mini Bomb Kaden sent him. He rears his arm up in the air and with a grunt Rex sends it down to the ground two feet away from his feet, the explosion throwing off a bunch of the Compsognathus viruses, deleting most of them who've been blown off their feet. Zill and Bull cover their eyes; they were pretty dumb to stay so close to the Net Navi when anyone could've expected a struggle from him. The two Sharpteeth Net Navis uncover their eyes just to see a bunch of smoke in front of them with their viruses strewn about the area, most of them deleted from being dangerously close to the explosion.

_""Cannon, code A! Battle Chip in!""_

A huge shot comes plowing through the smoke and striking a Compsognathus, sending the helpless virus flying into two of its comrade, deleting them both and itself. The shot made a good aftershock to blow the smoke away to revel Rex, his left arm out extended as a cannon, upper half green and upper half light-green, has replaced his hand, holding the heavy cannon up with the help of his right hand.

"You dirty little sneak!" Bull snarls. He was about to rush in to shred the Net Navi to bits until Zill holds out his left arm to stop his partner.

"Calm down, Bull!" Zill commands. He shifts his sight onto Rex and snaps his fingers. Soon enough 20 light-blue transparent squares show up between Rex and the two Sharpteeth as more Compsognathus viruses form inside the blocks and land onto the ground, all of them hissing at Rex.

_""Aw man, more of them?"" _Kaden groans. _""Shoot them down, Rex!""_

"I'm trying!" Rex complains as his cannon shoots every two seconds, training the aim at between the viruses so the explosion of the blast could take out two at a time. "But those two Sickleclaws keep calling for more! I can't hold them for long!" Rex is right, every time he deletes two viruses two more come to take their place. Rex takes two steps back to keep the viruses at bay; he continues firing at them until the Cannon Battle Chip runs out of juice, the cannon on his left arm disintegrating into blue particles. "Oh no," Rex gasps as he looks at his left hand, "The cannon ran out of power!"

Zill grins and holds out his hand, stopping the viruses' actions and, with another snap of his fingers, sends them back from where they summoned them, "Looks like he's had enough of them." He grins at Bull, "How about we go in and rip him to shreds?"

Bull nods and charges in practically immediately, lunging in for a bite of his own. Rex gasps and jumps aside, barely avoiding the bite as Bull's mouth clamps shut inches away from his tail. Zill charges in for a slash, but Rex dodges it bending back Matrix-style, setting his hands on the ground behind him to prevent from falling unto the ground. With a strain Rex shifts his weight unto his arms and shoves his feet off the ground and up, striking with his feet Zill's lower jaw as he back flips to a standing position.

Rex backs away as he eyes the two Net Navis, Bull glaring at Rex while Zill fumbles back clutching his lower jaw. "Kaden, I need some Battle Chips! Anything!"

_""These guys want some close-range action, huh?""_ Kaden boldly points out; a hint of nervousness can be sensed in his voice. This is first ever Net Battle against other Net Navis, and this is for real win-or-lose-everything! _""We can't lose here, Rex! Cannon, code B! Battle Chip in!""_

Rex's left hand is engulfed in blue particles and a light-blue transparent cube surrounds his hand as a bright blue shine begins to glow brightly in the cube and grow in size until it dies down to reveal the cannon. Rex bravely raises his arm, aims and fires a shot, closely followed by another. The shots are all aimed at Zill and Bull, who in turn run out of the way and dodge the shots. Velociraptors are known for their speed, and with this speed is how these two Net Navis are dodging the shots. Zigzagging across the field, running in circles around Rex, jumping about, the two Net Navis danced here and there, the shots touching nothing but the ground, leaving a circle of ash and smoke on the ground.

"Grrr!" Rex growls in frustration, "They're too fast!"

Bull leaps into the air to dodge another shot, and quick after landing he leaps again toward Rex, his mouth wide open for the bite onto Rex's head. The Net Navi gasps as a bunch of teeth fly right at him, their sharp look freezing him in place. He can practically feel his head being crushed in that jaw and getting deleted right in the spot.

_""Rex, heads up!""_ Kaden's voice ring inside Rex's head, causing the Net Navi to snap out of the trauma and jump out of the way and out of danger's way, though the Sickleclaw Net Navi instinctively leaps again. _""He's coming back! Mega Fist, code B! Battle Chip in!""_

Rex couldn't help but smirk. Nice. He rears back his left arm as the cannon is surrounded by a huge light-blue transparent cube and morphs into a giant, blue fist! "Have a fistful of this!" He throws his hand forward and his huge fist connects with Bull's face. The strike makes a loud thump as the fist connects with his face and throws him back at least fifty feet away and unto a tree, the slam so hard the tree was pulled right off its roots and collapses down to the ground, kicking up dust and dirt and cyber leaves. The damage and impact, especially to the face, was so powerful that led to only one thing…

_""Bull, logging out.""_

Zill stared with widen eyes, his jaw dropped as he saw his partner fly across the place and slam right onto a tree and completely rip it from its roots. He turns to Rex and gives off an intimidating snarl at the Net Navi, clenching his fists so tight that his hands trembled. "That's it!" He shouted, gritting his teeth. "Nobody destroys my brother like that…!" He lifts his hand up in the air and a total of six cubes surround the Net Navi, clearly about to summon back his viruses.

_""Aw man, not them again!""_ Kaden complains.

The viruses begin to take shape, a height a bit much higher than the viruses they were dealing with minutes ago. The little virus seems to be 2.5 feet tall, its little arms begins to form with three large, strongly-curved claws on each forelimb. From behind a long, stiff tail begins to protrude. Four sharp talons form at their feet at the tip of their toes, their snout later forming as the glow dies down. These aren't the Compsognathus viruses they had to deal with before. These are Velociraptor viruses! Their eyes orange with a brown 'iris' line moving back and forth as if scanning like the Compsognathus' eyes, the icy blue feathers on the back of its head spiking out as projectiles attached to its body, a bunch of very small icy blue spikes on the tip of their tail. If Kaden's knowledge about these viruses is accurate, the Velociraptor viruses can shoot the spikes at the back of their heads for long-range attacks.

"You gotta be kidding me!" Rex comments as not only Velociraptor viruses show up, but also Compsognathus viruses. "He can call Velociraptors too? He backs away as the group of viruses stalk over to him, hissing and snarling at the Net Navi as they approach their prey. These two viruses are a couple of the fastest Sharpteeth in the virus library! Not many can outrun them without being touched or severely hurt, especially when they hunt in packs. Rex would be caught and attacked in no time if he tries to run away; he would be shredded apart right on the spot and get deleted, especially with a Sickleclaw Net Navi.

"Kaden," Rex starts as he backs up against a tree, watching at the viruses close in on him. "I don't suppose you have another Fire Water Battle Chip with you, do ya?"

_""No,"" _Kaden replies, he himself sounding quite frustrating and angered, _""I'm sorry, but I used up all 5 Battle Chips. I got nothing left.""_

Battle Chips are the main offense for against viruses and Net Battles, but they're not unlimited. Once a Battle Chip is used up it has to be deposited into the PET Customization Center machine or any local Battle Chip Recharger to recharge the chips' data to make them usable again. Even though Kaden has the machine right next to him the chips' data are in the PET, which he must plug into the machine to extract the data from the PET and back into the chips, which is something Kaden can't do without his Net Navi in the PET. In other words, they're sunk.

"Shoot!" Rex curses.

"Forget about capturing him for the boss, delete him now!" Zill cries out in anger to the viruses, and just like that all of them throw their hiss and charge right at the Net Navi, 3 Velociraptor and 3 Compsognathus viruses heading right at him. They all jump for the pounce on Rex, their jaws open wide.

_""Rex!""_ Kaden shouts in despair, unable to believe how his Net Navi is going to end, and on his first trip into the Net too…

"Cyber Claw!"

_""Huh?""_

"What?"

In a tremendous whoosh the three Velociraptor and Compsognathus viruses were all deleted. Rex holds his right arm out to the side, his claws turned into pure cyber energy has they have grown half a foot long. Somehow Rex have gained the data of a Cyber Claw Battle Chip and used it on his own free will against the viruses, deleting them with ease.

"Impossible!" Zill shouts.

Kaden, however, was speechless, though he managed to break his silence in a couple of seconds. _""You…""_ He stammered, but finally got his words together. _""You…How did you…?""_

Rex flexes his claws as they still burn bright with that cyber energy from the Cyber Claw data still in use. "I forgot to tell you. Your dad is testing a brand new Custom Program on me called Chip Memory. It allows me to keep in my memory the data of a Battle Chip the program has. In this case, it's the Cyber Claw." He grins as he looks at the extended and much more dangerous claws. "Kinda suits me with the claws and all."

_""Awesome!""_ Kaden comments, he sounds pretty pleased at this turn of events.

Zill was at a state of shock however. He wasn't fully in on what the boss's plan is about what he wanted to hijack from SciLab, but he clearly knows what they're looking for. What he has just seen…The Net Navi…That sudden surprise of the so called Chip Memory program…Could it be? Is this Net Navi the program the boss wanted to steal from SciLab? No, it can't be. Why would a program so potent and powerful be at the hands of a kid? It doesn't make sense. But he can't deny it. This Net Navi _does_ come close to what the boss was looking for. What it's suppose to do, what's so special about it…

Zill breaks out of it, there's no way the program is what he's looking at! He snarls and stomps the ground. "That's it! No more games! Delete him!" He shouted in pure anger as he summons even more Velociraptor and Compsognathus viruses. Well enough to surround himself with a whole army of them. This is a predictable move from Zill, considering the Net Navi can get pretty cowardly when the odds are against him. "Delete him!"

"Uh-oh!" Rex gulps as he now faces practically and army of viruses. Three of them run and jump at him only to get deleted with a slash of Rex's Cyber Claw. Three more jump in and soon four more, all of them getting deleted by each swing of Rex's arms, the high damage ratio of the Cyber Claw being too much for the little viruses. More and more soon jump in, forcing Rex to move from his spot and back away as he keeps swinging to delete them all. One Compsognathus virus that Rex missed jumps at him and tackles him right to the ground only to be deleted by the claws soon after. But the damage has been done. Rex is on his back on the ground as the viruses surround him. He breathes heavily as he has grown tired of swinging his arm back and forth deleting them all. He would need a Tree Star Battle Chip to recover his health and weakness, but sadly Kaden doesn't have one.

_""Rex, c'mon! Get up!""_ Kaden pleads.

"Rip him apart!" Zill shouts.

One was about to pounce for the kill when an explosion erupts from its left, taking out about ten viruses and hurting three more. Soon another explosion erupts from its right, and soon another, and another. A series of explosions erupts and eradicating almost all of them.

"What the heck?" Zill cries out angrily.

"What's going on?" Rex questions.

From a tree a light-brown Net Navi with brown shoulder pads and a lighter brown from under his jaw down his chest and stomach and down between his legs to the underside of his tail and a crest with an LF mark on his chest jumps out holding Mini Bombs on both his hands. From his elbows to his hands wears what appears to be bulky gloves and from his knees to his ankle wears what appears to be bulky boots. His brown eyes formed into a glare as he throws the Mini Bombs to the gang of viruses below him and more Mini Bombs forming into his hands after chucking one off, bombarding and deleting the gang without much effort.

"Who dares to interfere?" Zill snarls as he looks around to find the perpetrator who's deleting his whole army.

"That would be me!" The Net Navi speaks with a familiar voice to all of us. He lands and throws his last Mini Bomb to the last pack of viruses before turning his left arm into a buster cannon, an ordinary virus busting weapon most leaf-eater Net Navis are equipped with, and picking off the last viruses before turning his attention to Zill, his buster trained to the evil Sickleclaw Net Navi.

"Blast!" Zill curses, "I'm out of here!"

_""Zill, logging out.""_

The Net Navi watches as Zill turns into a bright, brown transport line and shoots up into the sky, disappearing after a while of ascending. The Net Navi slowly turns to face Rex, who's on his knees getting up with his back turned.

_""Phew. You okay, Rex?""_ Kaden inquires as he watches his Net Navi slowly and weakly get up.

"Yeah…" Rex answers as his claws turns back to normal, stopping the use of the Cyber Claw. "Man…What a relief for help to come when it di-" Rex froze right then and there as he feels the muzzle of a buster cannon being pressed to his right temple. Knowing he could get deleted with a clear shot there, Rex has no choice but to raise his arms in surrender, his eyes trying to look at the Net Navi threatening to shoot him.

"Dang Sharpteeth…" The Net Navi mutters, his buster still pressed against Rex's temple. "Troublemakers to the Net…Why I oughta-"

_""Wait a minute."" _Kaden pleads, noticing the crest on the Net Navi's chest. _""Littlefoot?""_

The Net Navi, Littlefoot, flinches and looks around, recognizing that voice anywhere. "Kaden?" He questions, "Is that you?"

_""Hahah, yeah!""_

_""Are you kidding me?""_ A familiar voice is heard through Kaden's PET, also hearable to Rex and Littlefoot. Jason! _""Kaden, is that really you?""_

_""Hahah! You betcha, Jason!"" _Kaden confirms with happiness.

_""Wow, man! I can't believe it!""_ Jason comments, he too cannot suppress the happiness for his friend from this shock of the morning. _""You finally got a PET and a Net Navi?""_

_""Yup! All thanks to dad!""_

"That's awesome, Kaden!" Littlefoot comments with a grin as he stares up in the sky as if expecting the Net Ops to show up, him too is happy for the news, though he keeps his concentration enough to keep the buster trained at Rex. "So! Who's your Net Navi?"

"Umm," Rex hums, trying to get Littlefoot's attention, "Your buster's aiming right at him…"

Littlefoot stares at Rex with widen eyes. This Sharptooth? Kaden's Net Navi? No way! Sharptooth generation Net Navis for the public is prohibited by the Official Net Battle Rules and Regulations Committee, except for the Alimon series and three Sharpteeth the Officials use. Besides, Littlefoot's scanners indicate Rex's coding and data is nothing but Sharptooth data, no Leaf-eater data in him at all.

"Him?" Littlefoot questions in disbelief, accidentally thrusting his buster in a bit too much and hitting Rex's head. "This Sharptooth?"

_""Are you serious?""_ Jason also sounds in disbelief. _""But the Sharptooth generation is prohibited because of the viruses and Sharptooth Net Navi outlaws. How in the world did you get a Sharptooth Net Navi from your dad and still be cool with the rules and laws?""_

"Especially when his coding and data is nothing but pure Sharptooth data…I think…" Littlefoot shakes his head and scratches his head. "I'm not even sure if his data is actually Sharptooth related…Some of it doesn't make any sense…"

_""Heheh…""_ Kaden chuckles bashfully, _""Littlefoot…Jason…Meet my Net Navi, Rex. The reason why my dad gave me a Sharptooth Net Navi was because…Well…Because…""_ Kaden seems to have forgotten the reason. It would slip anyone's mind after an intense encounter with two Net Navi outlaws and their viruses.

"I can explain." Rex confesses. His arms are growing tired from having them raised as he slowly lowers them. "Just give me a chance and I'll explain everything. Look, if it makes you feel better I could tell you everything in Kaden's HP, only one escape portal and you between me and it."

Littlefoot eyes him for a bit. He doesn't have a reason why not to trust him. If Kaden says this Sharptooth is his Net Navi, it's gotta be the truth. Still, there might be a chance that this Sharptooth is playing along, and the PET came from a criminal with malicious intentions and gave this Sharptooth instructions to play along as an innocent Net Navi for the right moment to pull off a huge Net Crime or something. Hey, in a world where technology is so advanced, anything could happen with a push of a button.

"Well…" Littlefoot slowly lowers his buster, allowing the Sharptooth to stand up. "Alright, if you are Kaden's Net Navi the least you could do is let us know exactly what you are, show the authenticity of Kaden's dad and show us you mean no harm."

Rex nods, "Alright, no problem."

_""And I'll give the others a call.""_ Jason adds. _""Might as well let our friends know about this to save time to explain them too.""_

_""Oh, yeah. Good idea!""_

Rex watches as Littlefoot's arm turns back to normal as they both head back to the portal to Kaden's HP. "So…You're a longneck, huh?"

"Yeah," Littlefoot confirms, "You?"

Rex chuckles and shrugs, "Can't tell? I'm a Sharptooth."

Littlefoot stops, "I meant your series, not generation." As he was finishing his sentence Rex already sets foot on the portal, disintegrates like last time and leaves in a light-blue transport line to Kaden's HP, leaving him behind. "Geez…Talk about getting left behind…"

_""Heheh, sorry.""_ Kaden apologizes,_ ""I'm just getting to know him as well.""_

* * *

"On the next chapter of Land Before Time: Battle Network!"

"Kaden and Jason introduce Rex to the gang."

"Tensions run high as skeptical Net Navis decide whether or not to trust a Sharptooth such as Rex."

"What's so different about this Net Navi that sets him apart from the viruses and outlaws?"

"Find out the answers on the next chapter of Land Before Time: Battle Network!"


	5. Join the gang

It's been about half an hour since the Velociraptor NetNavi Outlaws, Zill and Bull, wreaked havoc in Garden Area 1 with their Compsognathus and Velociraptor viruses…

"We're sorry, sir…We have failed…"

And things are looking bleak for a couple of men. These two gentlemen stand in front of a rotatable chair with the back of the chair facing them. The man on the left is wearing a pair of long black jeans and a black vest with a red shirt underneath. The man next to him dons a pair of brown jeans and a light brown long-sleeved shirt. The two of them seem quite identical, like twins.

"Our operation to flush and find the program you sent us to find has failed…" The man in black continues.

"There was this…NetNavi," The man in brown continues for his partner, "This punk and another twerp interfered and…And…" The man stammered to continue at the moment he saw the figure sitting in the chair clutch the grip of the chair tightly, evidently growing angry at the two for their excuse for failing the mission they were sent for.

"Two worthless NetNavis defeated the two of you and all the viruses I entrusted you?" The figure sitting in the chair shouts furiously, "Were they the Officials?"

The two men flinched at the question. They're sure the NetNavis that messed with them weren't with the Officials, and reporting this they're sure the boss is not going to cut any slack on them. "N-No sir…" The man in brown replies fearfully, "They weren't Officials…"

The figure sitting on the chair slams its fists on the chair's grip, making the sound of the slam echo in the room. The two men seem quite frightened, and they both gasp in horror as the forest view outside the window begins to take a blue-ish look as some sort of shield comes up. The two men know exactly what this phenomenon is, and their fear only grow as a glow begins to take place from behind the chair. And just like that the glow ends and the chair suddenly turns, "I ought to kill you right there where you stand for failing the HTP!"

The two men cower and fumble back in fear. Standing in front of them is their boss, but this is no human towering over them just 15 feet in front of them. What they are facing is a 16 foot tall Tyrannosaurus Rex, the tallest most dangerous Sharptooth from the Sharptooth Generation.

This Sharptooth is dark green with green oval shoulder pads with lighter green spikes on top of them and his underside from his neck down to the underside of his long strong tail is light green, on its chest rests a diamond-shaped insignia with a design in the middle resembling two slashes crossing each other diagonally. From the back of its neck down to the tip of his tail are sharp-looking green spikes protruding out of its back over darker stripes. This Sharptooth also seems heavily reinforced with what seems like green armor gauntlets on its arms from its elbows down to its three fingered hands and armor leggings from its knees down to its ankles. The Sharptooth stands on its toes like the primitive Tyrannosaurs Rex, but it's able to stand upright like a humanoid. Its arms a bit shorter, its head and teeth resembling like the real thing. Its eyes are a pair of black irises with the pupils red instead of white, giving his gaze a much more intimidating look.

"Sla…Slasher…" The man in brown stammered, quivering in fight at the Sharptooth standing over him just 15 feet away, but even at that distance it looks like the creature can devour him like nothing.

"Being defeated by mere civilian NetNavis…" The Sharptooth, Slasher, points out in a deep and terrorizing voice. "You two bring shame to the HTP…Now, you pay the consequences."

The two men stare and tremble as the giant Sharptooth takes a step forward to them, the ground shaking from its massive footsteps. The man in brown steps back with each step the Sharptooth takes, but the man in black stands his ground, despite his trembling legs, and speaks out. "Sir, wait! Please, give us another chance!"

Slasher stops and glares down at the man in black, "Give me one good reason why I should?"

The man in black gulps, but willingly continues. "One of the NetNavis…It was…of the Sharptooth Generation…"

Slasher narrows his eyes to the man. Sharptooth Generation…A civilian with a Sharptooth for a NetNavi? Slasher thinks for a moment there…The Official Net Battle Rules and Regulations Committee would never allow something like that to happen. They have proved time and time again a stable Sharptooth for a NetNavi just isn't possible without having it go wild and ferocious on the Net Op. The only way a civilian could get a Sharptooth as a NetNavi is either by using the illegal hacking tools or…No, it couldn't be…Could it?

Slasher takes a step back, leaving some room between him and the two gentlemen in front of him. "Go on…" Slasher starts, his voice sounding much calmer and interested in what this man knows.

The man replies with a grin, seems like he won't be beaten to a pulp along with his partner. "The NetNavi was a Sharptooth alright, the punk that defeated my partner's NetNavi with basic Battle Chips and one potent one. But what really surprised us is that twerp's ability to use the Cyber Claw Battle Chip at will!" That last statement made Slasher smirk, almost to a grin.

The man continues, "The NetNavi informed his Net Op of a Custom Program called Chip Memory, the reason why he could use Cyber Claw at will."

Slasher frowns. No…No, that Sharptooth isn't what he's looking for…If it was what he was looking for then it didn't needed to rely on a Custom Program to do that…On the other hand, there's no explanation on why a civilian would obtain a Sharptooth NetNavi and the NetNavi stable enough to work together with the Net Op to defeat two of the HTP's Sharpteeth warriors. Slasher smirks, "Very well, you two shall be spared…For the moment."

The two gentlemen sigh in relief and grin, the man in black taking one step forward. "Thank you, sir. Shall we find that Sharptooth NetNavi and delete him?"

Slasher shakes his head, "No…You two shall not get anywhere near that Sharptooth for the moment." Slasher turns to the wall and his eyes suddenly flicker white, and as if by remote control a door opens, "Come in…Netra."

A figure walks through the door and into the room. A male wearing a green sweatshirt with a pair of green shorts with the number 4 on the side of the pants comes in, his attire looking like a sport wear as if he just came back from playing a sport. The man has a spiky hairdo with yellow tips, looking like one of those hardcore rockers who just came back from some weird hairdo saloon. "Wassup homies!" Netra greets, grinning about at the group. He notices the huge Sharptooth towering over him, but the man just grins at him like a teenager who just got into the crowd he loves to hang around in. "Wassup boss! I see you're fused again!"

Slasher sighs deeply as he rubs his head. To this day he doesn't know why a teenager such as him got into the HTP, let alone stayed around so long without getting killed by the others henchmen. And although he might be a pain, his NetBattle skills are top notch. His Deinonychus Sharptooth NetNavi, Drone, is a very aggressive NetNavi who would do the job at any cost. No matter how many enemies go against him.

"So what's the job for me this time, boss?" Netra inquires. Although this teenager may seem loose and lazy, he's quite persistent and can do the job well.

"There's a good Sharptooth NetNavi in Garden City," Slasher begins, "I want you to find him…And bring him to me piece by piece. In one piece preferably…But that's optional…"

Netra grins. "No problem, boss! That NetNavi is toast!"

Slasher's eyes slowly narrows to slits, "Excellent…Dismissed!"

Netra nods and makes a quick 180 to leave. The two gentlemen from before also didn't waste any time in leaving the room and getting away from their rather scary boss. Slasher just grinned to himself as he turns to the window and wait for the blue-ish barrier to die down.

"If this NetNavi is definitely what I'm looking for…" Slasher begins to glow redishly and from his head down to his feet he begins to disintegrate into particles of data, the figure that was once Slasher shrinking down dramatically and down to a human form, just as the blue-ish barrier from outside the window disappeared. The figure is now just a 6 foot tall human. "Then when Netra comes back with the particle remains of him, my plan will be in motion…And the world will bow down to me and the Sharptooth Generation!" The leader of HTP couldn't help but to laugh, oh how he has waited so long for this…

That blue-ish barrier seen from his window was what they know as a Dimensional Area. And the Sharptooth, Slasher…Was his NetNavi. And the 'fusion' Netra mentioned before, it is known as Cross Fusion, an ability that with a special Battle Chip the Net Op and NetNavi can fuse together to become one…

* * *

It has been nearly an hour now since Rex was nearly deleted by the oncoming army of viruses from Zill and Bull. And if it wasn't for Littlefoot, he would've been deleted for sure too. It took ten minutes after that encounter for Kaden and Jason's friends' NetNavis to show up in Kaden's HP, Cera, Ducky, Spike and Petrie.

Ducky is a three foot tall Duck-bill type NetNavi. She's slightly tanned green with a pair of the usual NetNavi bulky boots with her toes sticking out, all three toes with very blunt claws. Her lower jaw down to her belly and underside of her tail is of a light tanned color and the back of her neck down to the tail a dark green color. On her back there appears to be what seems like a dark-green backpack-like add-on that goes well with her dark-green spine-line, an add-on many suspect it gives the Swimmers series the ability to breathe under-cyber water. She has thick dark-green ring-like armor around her shoulders and down her armpits while donning dark-green slick gloves from her elbows down to her hands, her four fingers armed with short, blunt claws. She has a large flat beak, like a duck, and a crest lies on top of her head, highlighted by a fairly short and hollow tube. Her eyes are a pair of light-blue and on her chest there's a crest with an insignia of the mark D with an aqua background.

Spike is a chubby four and a half foot tall Spiketail type NetNavi. Green colored with a tanned brown from underneath his jaw down his belly and underside of his tail. On his back a thin dark-green line spines down to his tail, where on each side a plate is located, 4 on each side. On his legs and arms he dons bulky boots and gloves on his legs and arms, including dark-green shoulder pads and kneepads. Like Ducky, Spike has thick dark-green ring-like armor around his shoulders and down his armpits. His three fingered hands are armored with blunt claws while his three toed feet are armored with the same claws. His eyes are a pair of purple and on the right side of his chest resides a crest with an insignia of the mark SP with a transparent design of a spike behind the letter.

Petrie is a skinny two and a half foot tall Flier type NetNavi. His neck his of color tan while his back and arms are brown and his stomach and feet are sort of grayish. He has an orange beak and he wears what seems like a brown helmet with a crest, a usual add-on for Fliers. Around his neck he wears what seems like an orange collar necklace and dark gray kneepads. Attached to his arms are a pair of brown wings, his hands have three fingers and his feet have three toes, no claws in sight though. On his chest resides a crest with an insignia of the mark P with a small cloud behind the letter.

Kaden recognizes the NetNavi sitting on a cyber rock on an edge of his HP, the Three Horn NetNavi he saw kick one of the Orund Brothers' NetNavi, Hyp. This Thee Horn NetNavi is five feet tall, orange body with yellow from her lower jaw down her neck, chest, stomach and underside of her strong tail. Her face similar to the Three Horn series, the small horn on her nose made of pure light-blue cybernetic energy. A spine-like accessory down her neck and back, a common add-on to the Three Horn series, good for extra power to their tackles. From her wrists up her arms to her shoulders runs a thick line of red ending on her red tough-looking shoulder pads. She also wears a pair of red boots from the knee down, her four toes with blunt claws sticking out at the end. She doesn't wear any gloves on her strong looking arms, where her four fingers are armored with blunt but tough looking claws.

Littlefoot sits on the ground along with Ducky, Spike and Petrie, the gang listening to Rex's speech and explanation. The Sharptooth NetNavi has told them about Kaden's father in helping on the development of the very first Sharptooth in being created by a mixture of Leaf Eater and Sharptooth data and signatures that would be set out for public use.

A Sharptooth NetNavi being created by complete Sharptooth data is impossible, Littlefoot, Kaden, and everyone else knows that fact. A Sharptooth being created by 100 Sharptooth data would create a meltdown in the data, the reason is because the signatures in the data is so unstable that being surrounded by millions of the same unstable signature would collapse the whole thing and turn malicious, like a computer virus, which is how the Sharptooth Generation is mostly viruses.

The Officials have cancelled that kind of dangerous Sharpteeth production and proceeded with the project of creating Sharptooth NetNavis with the NetNavi's body layout with Sharptooth data for the body and fill in the rest of the gap with Leaf-Eater data. Granted, it made the Sharptooth stable and functional; the NetNavi is practically a Leaf Eater with a Sharptooth body. And with the outbreak of the Sharptooth viruses and illegal use of leaked Sharptooth data, they kept the Sharptooth Generation NetNavis for Official use, since the NetNavis learn how to use their teeth and claws to fight with higher stats and power than Leaf Eater NetNavis; it would give the Officials an edge for control of Net Crimes and also to keep the public to use the NetNavis for evil and illegal operations.

Rex has touched that matter with them and also showed them the certificate of authorization and proof of approval from The Official Net Battle Rules and Regulations Committee. Rex stammered here and there as talking to a whole group of Leaf Eaters makes him nervous, his wings folded tightly behind his back as the reaction of being nervous forces him to do so. He explains to them how he's like a Sharptooth NetNavi like all the other Sharptooth NetNavis of the Officials, and he does not mean any harm. Littlefoot seems to believe so and willing to give him a chance, but Cera…However, doesn't seem willing to give him a chance to prove his trust.

"So…I guess that's it…" Rex finishes, giving off a deep sigh to release the tension from inside. "Like I said, I mean no harm; I'm just a Sharptooth NetNavi similar to the Officials'."

"But…Why Officials give Sharptooth to Kaden instead of normal Leaf Eater NetNavi?" Petrie inquires; his vocabulary as small and simple like we're all familiar with. "Me don't understand why Officials would do that."

"Ummm…" Rex stammers as he scratches his cheek. "Well…If I'm correct they're looking for a test run to see if it's safe to begin publishing the Sharptooth Generation NetNavis to the public."

"That does not sound like a good idea to me…" Ducky comments, her speech and voice like we all know and love, "Bad Net Ops might use Sharptooth NetNavis for very bad things and hurt innocent Leaf Eaters and…" She pauses as she places her hands on her cheeks and shakes her head, "I do not like this, no no no…"

Littlefoot looks at his NetNavi friends, "Well, look at this way…" He begins, "There are already criminals pulling off Net Crimes with Sharptooth NetNavis and viruses so it'll be more like reinforcing us and the law even more." Littlefoot stands up and gives his familiar friendly grin at his friends. "With that kind of help having Sharptooth NetNavis on our side, Net Crimes might even start to go down."

Ducky, Petrie and Spike look at each other, thinking about what Littlefoot said. Now that they think about it that way, the Longneck NetNavi has a point. Lately Net Crimes have been increasing a bit, and having good Sharptooth NetNavis on their side would definitely decimate the crimes down. And so what if some Sharptooth NetNavis turn against them, they'll have more Sharptooth NetNavis watching their backs and go against the outlaws. Doesn't sound like a bad idea at all; maybe the Officials do know what they're doing after all.

"Now that Petrie think it like that," Petrie starts, getting up on his feet and taking flight to the cyber air, stretching his wings. "Me think idea alright!"

Ducky giggles as she also gets up along with Spike. "Oh yes, it sounds much much better seeing it that way!" She turns and looks up at Spike, "Right, Spike?" Spike, despite his size and rather intimidating form, just gives a rather lazy smile and nods with a hum.

Rex tilts his head at the Spiketail NetNavi, wondering why he just nodded and gave a hum instead of giving a straight answer. Littlefoot giggles as he noticed the look in Rex's face, "I forgot to mention during my introductions to them." Littlefoot's face gets serious as he continues, "You see…One day we were virus busting together and a T-Rex type Sharptooth virus showed up, we were pretty deep in the net. We were all pretty damaged, but Spike got the most damage of us all."

""_The virus tore through his metallic plates with one of its bites,"" _Rex looks up at the speech from one of the Net Ops. The voice is from Spike's Net Op, Stephen. _""It seriously damaged Spike's speech program. And though we managed to get him fixed, his speech program was not repairable anymore, too severely damaged.""_

"Dang…" Rex winces, the thought of having those T-Rex type viruses sink its teeth into you and tear into you pretty good would send chills up anybody's spines. "I'm sorry to hear that…"

Spike just smiles and shrugs his shoulders.

Ducky giggles, "Oh, he does not mind." Rex chuckles, at least he's gaining some good and funny friends.

""_Well, guys?"" _Kaden's voice speaks through his PET's mic and into the conversation, _""What do you think?""_

""_Heheh! He sounds and looks alright to me!"" _A young male voice replies, one could guess this is Petrie's Net Op, Silus.

""_He's so cute!"" _A female voice speaks next, Ducky's Net Op, Sally._ ""You're so lucky to have him as a NetNavi, Kaden!""_

""_He seems honest; I'm willing to trust him."" _Stephen comments, Spike's Net Op.

""_Well you know me, he already gained my trust."" _Jason's voice was next to speak, Littlefoot's Net Op.

"Yeah well I don't trust him!" A tough sounding female voice cries out from a corner in Kaden's HP, making all the NetNavis present to turn to that spot, Cera. "I'm not going to risk my hide in trusting a Sharptooth! I mean, look at him! He's a Sharptooth! And I'm not going to trust another one!"

Rex was taken back from Cera's sudden explosive anger. He backs away a bit and holds up his hands in defense, "Whoa, hold on there. There's no way I wou-"

""_I agree with Cera,"" _A female voice speaks out; Cera's Net Op, Malory. _""I'm sorry, but after what happened last time, I'm not willing to get into that chance again.""_

Kaden stammers, _""But…Malory…Uhh…""_

"Forget it! I'm out of here!" Cera stomps toward the exit to Kaden's HP, a frightening glare in her eyes as she makes way to the exit.

Littlefoot however, runs after her, "Cera! Wait!"

Cera continues along her way to the exit, but upon hearing Littlefoot's voice she glances over her shoulders to spot the NetNavi catching up to her and about to place his hand on her shoulder. Furious, she turns and tosses aside her arm, knocking Littlefoot's hand away from her. Cera glares at Littlefoot and opens her mouth to speak, "Come off of it, Littlefoot! He's a Sharptooth! Sharpteeth doesn't have feelings! They'll just trick you and when you least expect it! Bam! You're deleted!"

Littlefoot stares at Cera, the urge to knock some sense into her rising. But Littlefoot holds back the urge and slowly brings back his arm and lowering his gaze away from her. He has no intentions of forcing Cera to put her trust in Rex, after all everyone here knows how stubborn that Three Horn can be.

"You guys can be friends with him," Cera continues before turning around, "but I'm not going to hang around him and have the same thing happen again!"

Rex watches in disappointment as Cera walks to the exit and transmits out of the HP. He was hoping to be friends with all of Kaden's friends' NetNavis, but one Net Op and her NetNavi have other intentions, and sadly it's the one about them staying away from him.

""_Sorry, Kaden…"" _Cera's Net Op, Malory, speaks. _""But I still can't trust him completely…""_

""_It's OK, Malory."" _Kaden replies, _""I understand…""_

Rex sighs, "I'm sorry…I didn't mean to get her mad…"

"It's not your fault." Littlefoot assures the Sharptooth NetNavi as he walks back to the others. "She just has a huge grudge against the Sharptooth Generation."

"How come?" Rex shrugs. "I mean, I know Sharptooth viruses are bad and annoying, but…"

Rex blinks and looks up as he hears Jason sigh through his PET. _""Well…Has Kaden mentioned the HTP to you?""_

"HTP?" Rex echoes, clearly confused about it.

Knowing his duty about being his Net Op, Kaden decides to inform his NetNavi himself. _""The HTP is a band of criminals who have done numerous Net Crimes throughout the world. The Officials have managed to stop plenty of their crimes but they haven't had any luck in finding their meeting place.""_

""_We've had bumped heads with their NetNavis and viruses a couple of times before."" _Ducky's Net Op, Sally, continues for Kaden.

""_It was one of their viruses that damaged Spike's speech program."" _Stephen, Spike's Net Op, informs, which makes Rex wince at hearing about Spike's damaged speech program again.

"And that was the first time…" Rex swirls to face Littlefoot, who has a serious look on his face. "The second time they tricked us into helping them with one of their mischiefs."

"Uhhh…How did that happened?"

Littlefoot shakes his head, "Four of them used a program to disguise themselves as Leaf Eaters…They tricked Cera into helping them with getting into SciLab's mainframe." Rex was now even more confused, why would they target Cera to help them in infiltrating SciLab's mainframe?

"But," Littlefoot continues, "When Cera caught on to their tricks they deactivated their disguises and attacked Cera, quite brutally too…"

Rex looks around and notices the look of anguish on all their faces, he can only imagine the look on the Net Op's faces. "But…When we received the message and went there to help her, it was too late…Cera got deleted…" Rex winced at the mention of Cera's deletion.

""_We were lucky Malory kept backups of Cera's memory and internal data,"" _Petrie's Net Op, Silus, informs, _""Otherwise we couldn't revive Cera back.""_

""_And it took weeks for dad to receive and send us Cera's main programs and data."" _Kaden concludes.

"Oh…" Rex retaliates sadly, bowing his head in sadness as if he was responsible for it. "Poor Cera…"

"Cera was not the same since then." Ducky adds, "She would really hurt the viruses and became much aggressive in NetBattles and much meaner…I did not like it, no no no…" Spike's take on the attitude change was just a shudder and rubbing his arms as if he just picked up a sudden case of goose bumps.

Petrie trembled as he hugged himself as if using his wings for protection, "Me didn't like Cera's new attitude either…Scares Petrie half to death."

Rex sighs and bows his head in sadness; apparently he'll never be able to befriend Cera…

""_Don't look so down, Rex!"" _Jason declares in a rather good tone, _""If we all know Cera she'll come around eventually, prove to her what a nice and trustworthy Sharptooth you can be!""_

""_Yeah, he's right!"" _Sally confirms, _""Cera may always look like a meanie, but she has a big heart. She'll come around!""_

""_Just don't get on her bad side,"" _Stepehn adds with a playful tone, _""Spike once did and almost got deleted himself.""_

""_Heheh! You're exaggerating Stepeh,"" _Silus replies with a giggle, _""Cera knows not to go that far. Just take it slow with her and she'll start to like you.""_

Rex looks up and smiles at the Net Ops, even though they're not there with him physically, he knows they're looking at him through their PETs. "Thanks guys…For giving me a chance…"

Littlefoot grins and places his arm over Rex's shoulders, making the Sharptooth NetNavi flinch a bit from the surprise movement after zoning out from staring up into cyber space, but soon grins back as he looks at Littlefoot. "Heheh! Of course we're willing!" Littlefoot begins with his famous smile, "Everyone deserves a chance to prove their trust if they're willing!"

"Littlefoot right!" Petrie nods as he flies in, the two and a half feet NetNavi hovering in front of Littlefoot and Rex. "Me like Rex already! Rex Flier type like Petrie!"

"Oh yes!" Ducky giggles as she steps up to Rex and looks up at the Sharptooth NetNavi. "Rex is very friendly, he is he is."

Rex smiles down at Ducky and suddenly grunts and laughs as Spike grabs him in a headlock and noogies him, the gang, including the Net Ops, laugh at their little tussle. Just as Rex breaks free he smiles wide, "Thanks guys."

""_Alright!"" _Kaden cheers, _""The gang is now together on the net! Those viruses and the HTP better fear us!"" _

Jason laughs, _""We can start with the others, anyone up for some NetBattling in Mr. Haruko's shop?""_

"Hahah! I'm game!" Littlefoot cries as he holds up his left arm in a fist and grab onto his left bicep with his right hand.

"Sound like fun!" Petrie comments.

Ducky giggles, "I do not wish to fight, but I know Spike might want to NetBattle, right Spike?" Ducky looks up at Spike and the Spiketail NetNavi nods with an agreeing hum.

""_Alright! Guess we're all set!"" _Jason begins, _""Let's all jack out and meet at the shop in an hour!""_

""_I'll call Malory and try to convince her to come."" _Sally informs.

""_Alright, let's jack out!"" _Kaden commands and with a nod Petrie, Ducky and Spike jack out from Kaden's HP.

"See ya there, Rex." Littlefoot waves before logging out.

Rex smiles and turns around, looking up into the cyber sky, "Well Kaden, let's log out and do the same!"

""_Yeah, but something's bothering me,"" _Kaden sounds rather worried. _""We took this long to show my friends the authorization and certificates just to show them you're OK with the Officials, but now that I think of it we're probably going to have to do the same with everyone else that we meet."" _Ah, there's his worry.

Rex shrugs, "Don't worry Kaden, I'm sure it'll be OK."

""_I hope so…Well anyway, let's jack out, Rex!""_

"Roger!" Rex nods and closes his eyes. In an instant, like with the other NetNavis, he shrinks to a thin transport line and zooms up to the sky and out of the Net.

* * *

"Alright! Let's go!" Kaden cheers as he picks up his five Battle Chips and slips them in along with his PET into the PET pouch the PET came in. Kaden puts on his usual black long jeans and short sleeved red shirt with a black backside and a long sleeved gray undershirt. He's now ready to head out!

"Ready, Rex?"

""_Couldn't be more ready!"" _Rex replies from inside his PET. _""Let's go whoop some NetNavi tail!""_

"Awesome! I like your attitude!" Kaden grins as he heads out his room.  
'_Mental note: Give a million thanks to dad for giving him such a unique NetNavi.'_

Kaden exits his house and goes on a sprint toward the shop; he plans on getting there first with time to spare to show Haruko his new NetNavi. Haruko will be so psyched to see that finally, after years of hoping and wishing, Kaden has his own NetNavi! The kid just couldn't help but grin as he rushes down the street, his excitement getting the best of him as he hurries on down. He just feels like he's in some big dream to finally have his own NetNavi at the cost of nothing but love to his father.  
'_Mental note: Give him a BILLION thanks to dad!'_

""_You seem pretty happy,"" _Rex chuckles, _""You're practically running as fast as a Velociraptor Sharptooth.""_

"Hahah! I can't help it, Rex!" Kaden laughs, "You'd be the same too if you have spent years trying to find ways to get your own NetNavi!"

""_Heheh! I guess so."" _Kaden runs past a corner when his PET began beeping. Rex checks it out and then announces the culprit of the beep: _""Email for ya, Kaden!""_

"Email?" Kaden inquires as he stops and pulls out his PET, looking at Rex through the screen. "From who? I haven't given my email to anyone yet."

""_It's from your dad,"" _Rex informs, _""Want me to read it?""_

"Sure."

Rex taps at the email icon and opens up the email. Skimming through it, Rex begins reading it.

_Kaden,_

_I have received the activation readings of the PET, I'm glad to see it has arrived to you safe and sound. I'm sure you'll enjoy having a NetNavi and have fun along with your partner. Attached to this email there's a program I want you to install to your PET. It'll prove to Net Ops and NetNavis alike about your NetNavi's approval of the Official Net Battle Rules and Regulations Committee. It'll save time for you to keep showing the documents._

"A program, eh?" Kaden comments.

""_Yeah, I'll install it right away.""_

Kaden nods at his NetNavi, "You do that." He puts his PET away and continues again on his sprint to the store. Though unknown to him, just getting out of a train in the Garden City Train Station is a teenager wearing a green sweatshirt with a pair of green shorts, his hairdo spiky with yellow tips. He grins as he walks and stands on one of the balconies of the train station, watching at the morning view of Garden City.

"So that dude with the Sharptooth NetNavi hangs about in this city." Netra pulls out his PET, a green PET with the handle yellow. "Pretty calm city. We should fix that, eh Drone?"

On the screen of his PET a green Deinonychus Sharptooth NetNavi grins coldly, "We really should…The last thing I hate is a calm area…Let's give them a really intense ride…"

* * *

"On the next chapter of Land Before Time: Battle Network!"

"What's going on? An earthquake?"

"That's no earthquake! The train station is going haywire! The trains are running across the rails at super high speed!"

"That's no good. There's going to be a devastating train accident if this keeps up."

"Find out what happens on the next Land Before Time: Battle Network!"

* * *

I wanna give thanks to DarkHououmon for giving the main Sharptooth bad guy from Land Before Time 5: The Mysterious Island the name Slasher for Out of the Shadows, makes it so much easier for me on the creating names department.

Also, I wanna give thanks to Cyberlizard for letting me borrow his LBT character, Drone, for this story, also making it easier for me on the creating bad guys department.

Any of you readers interested in adding your dinosaur characters to the story as NetNavis, or your human characters please let me know! And thanks to those who have already done so!


	6. The first NetBattle and the Train

"Whoa!" Haruko nearly jumped out from behind the counter as he laid his eyes on Kaden's brand new PET, a shiny black PET with a blue outline around the screen, buttons, handle and lens. "I can't believe it!" Haruko exclaims.

"Believe it, Haruko!" Kaden was smiling as he held up his PET to Haruko. "It came in the mail last night, all thanks to good ol' dad!"

"Hahah! I never thought I'd see the day!" Haruko laughs heartedly as he placed his right hand on the back of his head, grinning as he finally sees a PET in Kaden's hands, the smile in the boy's face also bringing happiness to the man's heart. He has known about Kaden's desperation for a PET and NetNavi ever since he has met the child. He remembers how Kaden would stare and gawk at the PETs on display for hours, window shopping for the one he liked the best, his eyes sparkling as the daydreams of him NetBattling shone bright in his imagination. And now seeing Kaden finally having his own PET and NetNavi Haruko can't express how happy he is for the boy.

From inside the PET, Rex casually smiled and held up a hand. _""Pleasure to meet ya, sir, Kaden has talked to me a lot about you on our way here.""_

"The pleasure's all mine!" Haruko grinned at the Navi, raising an eyebrow as he examined the Navi's design and looks. "A Sharptooth Generation NetNavi huh, aren't you special." He chuckled.

Kaden laughed a bit. "Trust me, I don't know my dad's intention for giving me one either." He turned the PET over to have the screen facing him, looking at his Navi. "I guess he just wanted to beta test some new breed of Sharptooth or something, one who doesn't turn bad or something."

Rex shrugged and chuckled, "Who knows, I wasn't told either."

"Sounds promising," Haurko acknowledges as he leans over his counter. "A Sharptooth NetNavi huh, you think I could have a look at him?"

Kaden glances at Haruko and blinks at his PET. "Uhhh, sure," He nods and hands over his PET to Haruko, "Be careful though, I'm still learning how to use the thing so don't change any settings that I can't change back."

Haruko doesn't respond; he has already begun pressing this button and that, skimming around the stuff in the PET. Rex blinks at the man's handiworks and yelps in surprise at a window popping into the screen, bumping the NetNavi aside.

""_Hey, watch it!""_ Rex protests as he grabs at the window and slightly pushes it aside to have more room in the screen, but another window pops in front of said window and him, provoking the Navi to pop his head and hands up and over from behind the window; however, as he did so another window popped in front of the two other windows and the corner bumps into Rex's right cheek, throwing the Navi off the window he was trying to climb over on and fall behind the three opened windows.

"Hmmm…" He hums as he checks the PET's version and let's not forget the customization on the NetNavi, Rex. "I see he's heavily customized," Haruko comments as he strolls along the Navi parameters and stats. "You got quite a Navi there, Kaden." He presses a button and closes all the windows and returnes the PET back to Kaden, all that's left in the screen is Rex on the ground rubbing his muzzle.

"Thanks," Kaden responds as he takes back his PET and looks into it, frowning a bit seeing Rex down and rubbing his muzzle. "Something wrong?"

""_Window popped and hit me…""_ Rex responds.

Kaden chuckles a bit, but not even a slightly hurt muzzle on his Navi was going to spoil his day. It's a brand new day and he's in a shop where NetBattles and Battle Chip trades happen daily and a lot! Kaden will finally have his own NetBattle! What he always wanted to participate in after seeing his first NetBattle!

"Kaden!" Jason's voice rang out. Kaden turns and smiles as he sees Jason walking through the shop's entrance and approaches him and Haruko, wearing his usual brown jeans, white shirt, and blue cap customized with his NetNavi's insignia in the middle. "Dang bro, you must've run here as fast as Sonic the Hedgehog to already be here and talking to Haruko."

Kaden smirks, "When I'm excited about something I get here even faster than that hedgehog!"

""_And he means that.""_ Rex nods, recalling how in awe he was at how great timing Kaden did to make it to the shop.

Kaden looks past Jason toward the door, expecting the rest of the gang to come in shortly. But as he waited, no one else came into the store or even in sight. Jason lives closer to them all, except for Malory, than Kaden so he was expecting them to meet up and then head to Haruko's shop. Kaden looks at Jason, "Where are the others?"

Jason points his thumb over his shoulder to the train tracks which are viewable from inside the shop, "They all decided to go to Malory's house to try to get her to come over."

Kaden nods with a slight frown, "Right…"

Silus, Sally and Stephen are all much closer to Malory than Jason and Kaden. Just like Kaden and Jason, those four were together since Kindergarten when they all used to live in another city. Sally and Stephen are siblings who moved into Garden City the summer after Kindergarten, so they were first two to separate from Silus and Malory, thus meeting and making friends with Jason and Kaden in First Grade. It wasn't until half a year later that it was Silus' turn to move into Garden City, reuniting with Sally and Stephen and make friends with Jason and Kaden. Finally, when in Second Grade, it was Malory's turn to move into Garden City and reunite with her three best friends and join hands with Kaden and Jason, thus making their gang of friends.

"Don't worry," Jason starts as he notices the frown on his friend's face, "I'm sure they'll get her to come over."

That reassurance brings a smile to Kaden's face, "Yeah, I'm sure they will. Malory's not that stubborn."

""_But if she won't put an objection I'm sure Cera will.""_ Littlefoot comments from his PET, a comment which caused Jason and Kaden laugh.

The comment even made Haruko give a chuckle. "I doubt it, my daughter's Navi may be similar like her, but even she knows when to give someone a chance."

"Yeah, sounds about right." Kaden responds with a chuckle. He then began to scan around the store, which is all empty except for Haruko, Jason and himself. His eyes just kept going over the Battle Simulator machines, six of them in total in the store. He looks at his PET's screen, watching as Rex yawned and places his hands behind his head. The Navi doesn't have a clue on what to do other than waiting for Kaden's friends to arrive. _""What?"" _He inquired as he sees his Net Op looking at him.

"Nothing…" He replied with a smirk, provoking Rex to raise an eyebrow at his own Net Op, wondering what the heck he's scheming. He went on looking as his Net Op glances at Jason with a smirk, and in just a few words he heard what he was expecting to hear after such a malicious smirk.

"Hey Jason, let's NetBattle!"

* * *

"C'mon, Malory!" Silus calls out as he runs up the stairs to the Garden City Train Station. "We're late enough as it is!"

"He sounds cheerful…" Malory mutters. Silus is pretty much the cheerful one of the group, always keeping everyone's spirits up in good times and bad, he usually wears a pair of brown semi-long pants that go past his knee and a yellow long-sleeved shirt.

Sally giggles and grabs Malory's arm and pulls her. "C'mon, let's go!" Sally is the only female of the gang, sweet and easygoing. Her usual clothing is a pair of green jeans and a dark green vest customized to have her Navi's insignia on the left side of the vest. There's rumor in the gang and at school that Sally and Jason may have a thing for each other, but the two youth deny of such a thing.

"Gah! Stop pulling!" Malory complains, "I'm going I'm going!"

Stephen giggles as he leans on the guard rail on top of the station as he looks down at Sally getting Malory up the stairs. "Same ol' Malory." He talks to himself followed by a nodding hum coming from his PET, his NetNavi Spike. Stephen is the easy-going relaxed one of the gang, much like his NetNavi. He dresses similar like his sister, a pair of long green jeans and a long-sleeved shirt with a dark green vest over the shirt.

Sally manages to get Malory up to the top of the stairs, now standing at the ledge where they wait for the train. "What's the rush anyway? We have to wait for the train anyway!"

Sally just smiles and jokes around, "We just want to make sure you won't bail on us."

"Peh," Malory scoffs, "how kind of you." Her sarcastic remark speaks out. "Now if you excuse me, I'm going to wait for the train over here." She walks away from the trio and sits down on a single bench, taking out her PET before sitting down. Malory is the hot-head of the group, ever since the deletion of Cera she has grown a bit cold and distant, developing a deep hatred toward the Sharpteeth Generation. Her clothing is a pair of long orange pants and a short sleeved orange shirt with her NetNavi's insignia on the whole backside of her shirt.

""_Something the matter?""_ Her NetNavi, Cera, inquires after noticing her Net Op staring down at the PET.

Malory sighs and rests her chin on one hand, "No…Just that I'm being dragged out of the house just to go to my dad's store…"

""_It's because of the Sharptooth, isn't it?"" _Cera adds, sounding a bit angry herself.

"Please, I could care less about Kaden's new NetNavi," Malory spits, "I am happy to hear he has his own Navi, but dragging me out of the house just for that? C'mon! I already saw him and I don't need to go see him close and personal…But…" Malory's gaze softens, "But they do want to spend the day with me…And I don't really want to spend the weekend cooped up at home…"

Cera nods in understanding but still keeps her glare. _""Yeah well, that doesn't mean we have to spend time with that Sharptooth! He better keep his distance or I'll crush his bones!""_

Malory nods, "If you're sure on having him keep his distance."

Cera nods, _""Of course I'm sure!""_ She smirks and continues, _""After all he's a Sharptooth! They're all the same! Heartless and cold!""_

"He did look nice…"

Cera shakes her head. _""Of course he does! That's how they get you into a false sense of security and then when you least expect it they delete you on the spot!""_ Cera was now gritting her teeth as the memories flow back to that horrible day. _""I won't forget how I fell to such a trap that day! I won't forgive them!""_

Malory frowned at Cera's attitude. Of course she's not to say anything either, she feels the same way as her Navi does. However, Malory is willing to give Rex a chance, but Cera on the other hand doesn't seem willing to do that. "I guess you're right…I don't want to lose you again."

Stephen overheard the conversation between Malory and Cera as he waited for the train. He could only frown as he remembers how devastating Malory was when Cera was deleted, the tears rolling down her cheek as she saw Cera disintegrating into particles of data right before her eyes. Stephen sighed heavily, saddened by the memory. He pulled out his dark-green PET and looked at Spike, who was with his famous cheery attitude. "I take you're not worried about Cera accepting or rejecting Rex, huh?"

Spike just gave a big smile and shook his head with a hum, an action that made Stephen chuckle a bit. "Wish I could always be as positive as you." Stephen lifts up his head at the sound of a blazing horn in the distance, the sound of the train coming. "It's here!" Stephen announces to his friends.

Silus and Sally turned and got closer to the edge of the station as they too hear the train arriving. Malory lifts her head up as the wind suddenly picks up as the train enters the station. The train is none other than a silver bullet train with a thick blue line running horizontally from the front of the train to the back of it. As the train comes to a stop the doors slowly open, letting flow out a certain amount of passengers while others stay in the train waiting for the train to continue to their destination.

"Let's go!" Sally cheerfully tells her friends, making her way into the train. Silus was next then followed by Stephen. Malory sighed as she put her PET away, "Let's at least give Rex a chance." She suggested to her Navi before putting the PET away.

""…_Fine."" _Cera replies, not sounding all too happy about it.

* * *

Kaden looked at Jason with a soft glare as they both stand on opposite sides of the Battle Simulator machine, their PETs ready in hand as a NetBattle of epic proportions is about to take place.

"Don't go easy on me just because this is my first time!" Kaden smiles.

Jason chuckles, "I won't! You just do your best!"

Kaden grins, "You bet I will!" He grabs his PET's Plug-In cable and extends it out, "Jack in! Rex! Power up!"

Jason does the same with his, "Jack in! Littlefoot! Power up!"

The two best friends jack-in at the same time, their NetNavis exiting from their PETs and into the battle arena inside the machine, the arena being projected through a hologram inside a circular glass globe on top of the system. On the left side of the arena a light-brown NetNavi teleports in, brown shoulder pads on his shoulders and a lighter brown color from under his jaw down his chest, stomach and down between his legs to the underside of his tail. From his elbows to his hands wears a pair of bulky gloves, his four fingers armed with very blunt claws. From his knees down he wears a pair of bulky boots, four toes armed with very blunt claws as well. On his chest rests a crest with an LF insignia. NetNavi name: Littlefoot.

To the right side of the arena a blue-green NetNavi teleports in, dark blue oval shaped shoulder pads on his shoulders and a light-blue color from his chest down to his stomach and down between his legs to the underside of his tail. From his wrists starts a pair of dark blue gloves, his four fingers armed with sharp claws. From his knees down he's wearing a pair of bulky boots which cut down into a strap at his ankles and goes down between his heel and feet around the soles of his foot, letting his four toes with razor-sharp talons stand out. On his chest rests a crest with an RX insignia and on his left knee he dons a knee pad, and let's not forget his black scar over his right eye. NetNavi name: Rex.

"Hello again," Littlefoot greets with a soft smile. "I'm uhhh…Sorry how I treated you earlier today about being with those Sharpteeth and almost shooting you."

Rex shrugs, "Simple mistake, I feel I'm gonna get that a lot soon."

"I'll bet!" The Longneck Navi giggles, but then he gets serious, "OK, let's get this started!"

Rex nods, "Bring it on!"

The Battle Start banner moves across the hologram at the sound of the buzzer and the NetBattle is on! "Go, Rex!" Kaden cheers. "Take him down, Littlefoot!" Jason cries.

Rex charges in and throws his arm back and swings it forward horizontally to give a good slash at Littlefoot. The Longneck Navi jumps and avoids the attack and while on the air changes his arm to his buster weapon, the standard weapon for NetNavis. He aims and shoots at Rex, who dodges with a quick jump to the left and back flips away from another shot, his hands slamming to the ground and pushing himself off and into the air, his wings spreading and propelling him to the sky and unto an obstacle in the arena.

"You're not the only one with a buster!" Rex taunts as he holds out his left arm and transforms into a buster as well. He aims toward Littlefoot as he makes it to the ground and fires. The Longneck gasped and quickly threw himself to the ground toward his left, barely dodging the shot on such short notice. He rolls and stops on one knee, swiftly turning his buster to Rex and returning fire. Rex ducks low against the obstacle's firm top and dodges the shot, quickly jumping off of the obstacle to his right, his body propelled to the right in a horizontal position as he trains his buster and continuously shooting at his opponent. Shot after shot flying its way toward Littlefoot who manages to jump, strafe and crouching this way and that, dodging the shots.

Rex straightens himself and lands firmly on his feet, turns and sets his buster straight out toward Littlefoot, only to find himself surprised and being face to face with the muzzle of Littlefoot's buster. His opponent got to his landing spot and managed to surprise him…

Littlefoot should be feeling glad he pinned Rex, but truth be told he's just as pinned as he is. While his buster is trained to Rex's face, Rex's buster is also trained on _his _face; one false move and either one of them would get the devastating shot. The two Navis stay frozen in place with a buster to their faces, both of them afraid of making a sudden move and taking the damaging blow.

Kaden is tense as he witnesses the scene, a sweat down his head. "Whew…That was…Close…"

Jason is also tense from this predicament, this is Rex's first NetBattle and he's doing so well so far. "Man…Not bad…"

Littlefoot and Rex glare at each other and they both make a move, each of them jumping back and away at the same time, neither of them risking a shot.

"Time to heat things up!" Kaden announces as he takes out a Battle Chip. "Cannon, code A! Battle Chip in!" He slots in the Battle Chip into his PET chip slot, the database and picture of the chip popping into the PET. "Download!"

Rex's buster turns into a bulky green cannon, he trains it at Littlefoot and shoots, the mega shot flying straight toward the Longneck Navi. Littlefoot gasps and jumps out of the way into the air, aiming his buster at Rex and taking a shot at him; however, Rex lifts his cannon and shoots, the much more powerful shot plows through Littlefoot's buster shot and cancels it, and it's now directly toward Littlefoot!

"Oh snap!" Littlefoot curses as he crosses his arms for the hit.

But Jason won't let it happen. "Barrier, code B! Battle Chip in!" He slots in a Barrier Battle Chip immediately, "Download!"

A blue shield quickly engulfs Littlefoot, protecting him as the shot slams against his body and engulfing him in a thick smoke. Rex cursed under his breath as his arm returns to normal; he indeed saw the barrier taking effect before his shot touched him, just when he thought he had him…

"Combo time, Littlefoot." Jason mutters as he takes out two Battle Chips. "AreaSteal, code S! CyberSword, code S! Battle Chip in!" He slots in the AreaSteal and CyberSword Battle Chips in the PET. "Download!"

Naturally, two Battle Chips cannot be downloaded at once; however, it's a whole different story when the two of them are of the same code.

Littlefoot teleports from his position as AreaSteal takes effect, teleporting him behind Rex. As the teleport took place Littlefoot's right arm soon disintegrated from the wrist and transformed into a handle like object, his hand replaced by a sword made of cybernetic energy. Littlefoot reared back his arm as he finished teleporting and throws it up into the air, sending it down on Rex, "Haaa!"

Rex blinked and turned around and gave a shriek, in reaction throwing his arms up and catching the sword between his hands pressed against it. Littlefoot blinks at the quick defense but grits his teeth, pushing his sword harder down onto Rex. But the Sharptooth has a firm grip on the sword, his hands and the sword trembling at the amount of force being put into the struggle. Rex grits his teeth as the force being applied to keep the sword away from him starts to get to him, his legs trembling as he struggles to stay on foot, his back arched back in attempt to keep more support.

"Hang in there, Rex!" Kaden cheers his Navi on. "Don't give up!" He grits his teeth as he continues to watch his Navi struggling to keep the blade away, he wishes he had a Battle Chip that could help him, this struggle is just draining his HP. Kaden gasps as Rex drops on one knee, the Navi losing his strength. "Rex!"

Rex opened one eye as he continued holding up the blade, feeling like his back is about to break from the pressure, he can't give up! Rex closed his eye again and forcefully pushed himself back to his feet, slowly but surely he got himself off his knee and up to his feet.

"Huh? What the?" Littlefoot was in awe as he slowly got pushed back a few steps, unable to believe the strength Rex is mustering to get up regardless of the dangers of holding a blade a few inches away from his face. "Man! You're pretty strong!" Littlefoot acknowledges.

"Rex needs my help…" Kaden mutters as he checks around his Battle Chips, but none of them have any support to help his Navi. Upon setting his eyes on his MiniBomb chip Kaden gets an idea, something he learned from Silus a long time ago. "Guess I got no choice…" He slots the MiniBomb in and presses a few buttons on the PET. "I hope this works…"

Rex was losing his strength fast as the blade was slowly making its way closer to his face, soon his energy will run out and the blade will slice through him, costing him the NetBattle. Unknown to them both, Kaden's MiniBomb materializes over them and, as the laws of gravity take its effect, the bomb drops and lands right on Littlefoot's back, exploding on impact.

"Ghaaa!" Littlefoot yelps as the explosion injures his back, breaking his focus and interrupt his struggle with Rex. Rex took a deep breath as he backed away, and taking notice of Littlefoot's distraction Rex took his opportunity and lifted his left leg, throwing a mean kick at Littlefoot that knocked him off his feet and down to the ground. "Gaagh!"

"Littlefoot!" Jason cried out to his Navi after witnessing such a clever safe. "You OK? Get up!"

Littlefoot picked himself up, his sword thrusted into the ground as support to pull himself up onto his feet. Rubbing his cheek from the kick he straightens up, aims his sword at Rex and in the blink of an eye he charges to attack his opponent.

"Let's heat things up, Rex!" Kaden comments as he takes out one of his Battle Chips. "FireWater, code M! Battle Chip in!" He slams his Fire Water chip into his PET's chip slot. "Download!"

Rex's eyes glow red and soon that glow goes to his left hand. Clutching that hand into a fist he lifts his up to the sky with a roar and slams it down to the ground, breaking the ground as molten hot magma erupts and blows into the sky. More and more cracks riddle the ground as more magma erupts from underneath the earth's crust.

"Wha-What the?" Littlefoot stammers as he stops his charge, watching in horror as waves of magma erupt into the sky and threaten to swallow him whole.

"Get out of there, Littlefoot!" Jason commands as he takes out another chip. "AirShoes, code H! Battle Chip in!"

Littlefoot's feet are engulfed in a white glow, and just like that he jumps with incredible speed and dodge the lava engulfing the ground he was just in. Jumping and running this way and that at blinding speed Littlefoot easily dodges and avoids the moving and exploding magmas erupted from Kaden's FireWater chip. Soon there's very little room the lava hasn't covered, leaving behind a rather small patch of ground and some obstacles here and there untouched, practically turning the battlefield into a fire wasteland.

"Son of a…" Haruko muttered to himself as he watched the battle from behind his counter, slightly covering his mouth in awe at the outcome of the use of such chip. "What power…"

"Hahh…Hahh…Hahh…" Littlefoot breathed heavily as he recovered from such fast movements thanks to the AirShoes Battle Chip, his eyes wide in fear as he nearly dodged all the magma that tried to engulf him. Slowly lifting his head up he spots Rex on one knee, one hand planted firmly on the ground as cracks web from underneath the palm of his hand and all over the battlefield, the place filled with fire and hot magma.

"Too close…" Jason mutters with widen eyes. He slowly lifts his head to Kaden, who seems to be excited at how this NetBattle is going. Jason couldn't help but laugh a bit as he grins, "I gotta say Kaden, you're doing pretty good!"

Kaden chuckles with one hand behind his head, absently scratching. "Thanks, you're doing great too!"

Jason smirks, "I've never been this excited before, Littlefoot." He whispers to his Navi as he browses for the next chip to use.

"Me neither," Littlefoot replies in-between breaths, keeping his eye on Rex. "Even though this is their first NetBattle, they're good…"

"How are you holding up, Rex?" Kaden checks up on his Navi.

"How am I holding up?" Rex responds as he slowly gets up on his feet. "I'm terrific! I'm all excited and hyped up for this!" Rex grins as he grips both his hands into fists, excitement very noticeable on his face. "You just keep cheering me on and sending me those Battle Chips! I'll do my best until the end!"

Littlefoot overhears Rex's comment and smiles, the excitement in Rex's tone also hyping the Longneck Navi up for more intense action. "I'm glad to hear that, Rex!" Littlefoot soon begins to grin as he holds up his right arm, a glow engulfing his arm from the wrist up and changing shape. The glow dies down as fast as it came to reveal Littlefoot's buster, which has now elongated and changed. The first half of the new buster has changed color to orange while the other half, the front half, is of grey steel with three tubes and a metallic ring around them. Littlefoot's buster is now a gatlic buster, all thanks to the Battle Chip, Vulcan1. Littlefoot just smirks as he aims his gatlic gun-style buster at Rex, "Because it looks like that excitement will help you in dodging this!"

Rex's eyes widen at the new buster, catching on at what Littlefoot's comment meant. Kaden and Rex both gulp at the same time, their eyes widen in horror.

"Oh snap…" They both curse at the same time.

* * *

The employees of the Garden City Train Station peacefully do their work; some of them analyze the speed of the trains while others keep an eye out on the status of the computers running the trains. To them this is daily routine, everything seems in order and all the trains are running on time, not one of them late. The train station is quite known for always being on time, never a minute late. The security system of their computers are top technology, there hasn't been a virus attack on this system in the past ten years. However, this will all soon change.

Unaware to them a male, who seems to be around his early 20s, sneaks into one of the warehouses in the station, casually making his way into the warehouse and gazing at the component in front of him. What he stands in front of is one of the mainframes of the whole network of the train station. It wasn't easy to get in, having to hack into the three security devices to open the doors to get to it, but the man managed to penetrate through them and make it to the mainframe.

"Awesome looking piece of device," Netra grins arrogantly as he closes in to the computer and randomly taps at a few keys on the keyboard, not bothering to see what the keystrokes will do to the machine. "It's a bummer to know just one mistake to this computer will throw off the whole station…" He scoffs and takes out his green PET, "But to us it's nothing but hours of fun and playtime!"

From his PET a malicious chuckle rises out, a green Deinonychus type NetNavi grins at his NetOp through the PET screen. _""I've been hungering for ripping apart more of those pitiful security bots in the system…""_

Netra chuckles as he grins at his Navi. "Let's give the passengers of these trains a ride they won't soon forget." He grabs his PET's plug-in cable and extends it, jacking into the system's mainframe. "Make them squirm, Drone!"

A green teleport line touches down onto the system's mainframe. The Navi is as mentioned before, a green Deinonychus type Sharptooth with yellow stripes. He wears a pair of spiky green shoulder pads and kneepads with a yellow outline border. He wears a pair of green gloves from a bit below the elbow down, his three fingers armed with razor sharp claws. His knees are protected by a pair of kneepads and, from below the knee down, he wears a pair of bulky boots, four toes with three of them armed with sharp talons and one of them, the second toe, with a sickle-shaped talon. He also wears yellow skin tight beige chest plating with his crest on the right side of his chest with a DR insignia. NetNavi name: Drone.

Drone casually looks around the mainframe as if he owns the place, taking note of its jungle themed system and the power columns in the form of prehistoric trees and the mainframe's terminal in front of him. It looked too easy. The Navi just took a step forward and on cue the security bots of the mainframe showed up. Four Hylaeosaurus type Navi guards from the Leaf Eater Generation teleport into the mainframe. This type of Navi has spikes along their shoulders and sides all the way down to their tail and horn-covered oval plates embedded in their skins all over their back, their heads narrow and with a pointed snout, their tails long and heavy, from below their elbows and knees down to their wrists and ankles they don bulky gloves and boots to match their oval plates on their back, their four fingers and toes armed with blunt claws. To anyone these types of Navis would look dangerous and threatening. But to Drone, these are nothing.

"Intruder!" One of them calls out.

"Speaking the obvious," Drone grins, "How pathetic." He charges in at high speed and slashes at the face of one of them, decimating the Navi's face and causing him to log out. The three remaining Navis gasp at their comrade's fate and they go in for the offense. Drone just smirks as they come in to get some.

One of them throws a punch at Drone who lunges to the right, dodging the Hylaeosaurus' massive fist that could equal the power of a MegaFist chip. Drone jumps back to gain distance only to find himself in the range of one of the Navi's powerful tail. Drone just smirks and jumps into the sky, completely dodging the tail as he front flips and grabs the Navi's head with one hand, doing a hand stand. He quickly places his other hand on the Hylaeosaurus' head and pushes himself off, landing right next to the Navi with his back turn. Drone scoffs and makes a quick 180 degree turn with his leg out extended, delivering a severe kick to the Navi's stomach and piercing his sharp talons through his belly, causing the Navi to spew out liquefied data from his mouth, what we could call it cybernetic fictional blood, and causing the Navi to log out as well.

Drone smirks as he plants his foot to the ground and turns to the two remaining Navi guards of the mainframe. "Too easy…"

Netra smirks, "These dues are nothing, finish them off Drone." Netra takes out a Battle Chip and slots it in. The data transfers to Drone and his claws enlarge by half a foot and turn into pure cyber energy. Drone brings up his arm and holds the elongated claws to his shoulder as his eyes narrow into slits, intimidating the two remaining Hylaeosaurus guards.

"Slice and dice…" Drone grins and charges forward at incredible speed and, before the guards could've reacted, runs past them and with a good swing of his new powerful claws he slashes through their chests and bellies. The guards, unable to react to the wounds, were forced to log out from the damage or be deleted on the spot, leaving behind the mainframe's terminal unguarded

"That was disappointing…" Drone growls as his claws turn back to normal. He heads closer to the terminal and slams his fist into it, denting it badly and causing the mainframe's status and coding to malfunction. "Done."

Netra laughs, "You and your ways of breaking our toys! You never let me have some of the fun." He grins and takes out a total of three Battle Chips and slots them in at the same time, and strewn about in the mainframe viruses begin to materialize, summoned from the chips Netra just used. Compsognathus and Velociraptor type viruses materialize and shriek their roars up to the sky, the Compsognathuses' red slits for eyes and the dark red dot scanning back and forth in their eyes, their sharp-as-sword snouts swaying this way and back just itching to slash and impale their prey. The Velociraptors' orange slits for eyes with their brown dot scanning back and forth in their eyes, their icy blue feathers on the back of their heads spiking out as projectiles just waiting to be fired and their small icy blue spikes on the tip of their tail ready to stab and impale anything.

Drone faces them and holds out his hand, opening his snout in a booming and commanding voice. "Now my drones, give these people a ride they will never forget!"

* * *

Silus took a seat near one of the windows of the train station. He always loves to sit near them and watch as the buildings and trees of the city roll by as the train moves along the tracks. He always takes out his tan-colored PET and sets it along the window for his NetNavi, Petrie, to watch the view along with him. Petrie would always start a conversation with his NetOp about how he would love to spread his wings and fly around in the real world skies, to view from high up in the sky the humans and animals in their everyday life activities.

Silus turns his head a bit to the left and spots a green sign post that says _Shopping District_ written in big, white letters. Silus grins and turns to his friends, "We're almost there!"

Sally nods at Silus with a smile upon hearing the news and turns her head to Stephen and Malory. "After we meet up with Kaden and Jason at the chip shop, what are we going to do first?"

Stephen leans back against his chair with his hands behind his head. "Well, Jason is probably already giving Kaden some NetBattling tips and helping him in getting his Battle Chips in order and think of some strategies, so I'm probably going to challenge him to a NetBattle and see what his Navi is made of!"

Sally giggles, "You boys and your NetBattling." She turns her head to Malory and continues, "Are you going to NetBattle too, Malory?"

Malory just crosses her arms and turns her head toward the window. "I'll probably just watch, don't want to crush Kaden's Navi right after getting him."

""_Yeah!""_ Cera spits out from inside her PET. _""Besides, if I fight him I'll delete him! Friend or not he's a Sharptooth and I don't trust him to just NetBattle!""_

Stephen frowns and shakes his head. "Aw c'mon, give him a cha-" The train gives a sudden lag and the gravity in the train suddenly sucks them back against their seats. Silus, who was looking out the window, fell off his seat and down to the floor on his back, landing with a loud oof. His PET also fell to the ground and spun across the floor of the train.

Malory groaned as Stephen was practically thrown on her from the sudden force. She angrily pushed off her friend and growled under her breath before spitting out: "What the heck just happened?"

Sally grabbed the top of her seat and got up to her seat, wobbling a bit as the train was, for some odd reason, unstable and wobbling a bit. She looks out the window and gasps, seeing the view passing by way faster than usual, the trees passing by so fast they looked like one big green block. "The train!" She hollers, "It's going by way too fast!"

"What?" Malory spits as she gets up from her seat and looks out the window. "That's crazy!" She shouts irritated.

"I'll say…" Silus gets up on his hands and knees, rubbing his back a bit from the fall. He looks around the floor around him only to fail to find what he's looking for. "Aah! Petrie? Where are you?"

""_Oooohh…"" _A familiar moan is heard, sounding rather dizzy.

"Petrie!" Silus crawls around the floor searching for the thing, his eyes bobbing this way and that looking for the device. Finally, under one of the seats in the last rows he finds his PET. He reaches in and grabs his PET and drags it out from under the seat, grabbing it by the handle and getting it off the floor and he stands up.

""_Oooohhh…Petrie dizzy…""_ Petrie mumbles as he wobbles in the PET before falling on his back. _""PET spun on ground…""_

Silus grinned nervously at his Navi before turning to the windows; he too shocked along with his friends. "What the?"

The gang were so puzzled at why the train was gaining in speed that they were once again thrown off their feet as the train takes a curve in way too fast, knocking them down to the floor and slamming their backs to the wall on the opposite side. Each of them struck hard against the wall, their backs aching with the slam.

Malory gritted her teeth as she got up and rubbed her back, stomping toward the door that leads to the main controls of the train. "That's it! I'm gonna find out what the heck is wrong with that conductor!" Her voice sounded angry, and who wouldn't be after rolling to the other side of the train and slamming your back to the wall. She grabs the handle of the door and pulls but only to find the door is locked and won't even budge. "Argh! No good!" She shouts angrily and slams her fist to the door. "Is that conductor crazy?"

""_Oooohh! I do not like this! No no no…""_ Ducky shakes her head and slightly cover her eyes. _""The conductor has gotten crazy. Yup yup yup…""_

Sally takes out her PET and looks at Ducky, seeing the fear in her Navi's face. "Stay calm Ducky, there has to be an explanation to this."

""_Well I know what's going on!""_ Cera shouts irritated, causing Malory to take out her PET and look at her Navi. _""Viruses got into this train's system!""_ Cera's eyes are on fire, the hatred of viruses and the Sharptooth Generation clearly evident in her face. _""Malory! Jack me in! I'm going to teach those viruses a lesson!""_

Malory nods and looks around, spotting a jack-in port on the wall next to the door. She sprints over and extends her PET's plug-in cable, plugging the cable into the port. "Jack in! Cera! Power up!"

"You're not doing this alone!" Stephen declares as he too takes out his PET and extends out the cable. "Jack in! Spike! Power up!"

In the train system's mainframe two teleport beams, one orange and the other dark green, touches down and transmit the two Leaf Eater Navis into the system; Cera and Spike. The ThreeHorn looks around the jungle themed system and notices numerous amounts of viruses strewn all over the system, Compsognathus and Velociraptor viruses, all over them slashing and chewing away at the system's power columns, which are in the form of prehistoric trees. "Just as I thought!" Cera shouted angrily as she changes her arm into an orange standard buster and aims, "Eat this, losers!" She shoots and deletes one of them, catching the attention of them all. They all charge at the ThreeHorn who returns fire and deletes those who get in her way.

Spike glares and growls at the viruses jumping at him, their claws and teeth ready for the kill. The massive Navi brings his massive fists and strikes the viruses away, hitting four and up to five viruses and deleting them. Some of them try to sneak up from behind but a good whip of his tail proves too much for the viruses and they get easily deleted.

"ThreeHorn Charge, code C! Battle Chip in!" Malory slots in the chip into her PET. "Download!"

Cera drops onto all four and kicks dirt into the air with what is now her front legs, roars out the roar of a ThreeHorn and charges at the incoming herd of viruses, all of them colliding with her sharp horns and being deleted, some of them having the displeasure of being impaled on the horn before deletion.

"EarthShake, code E! Battle Chip in!" Stephen brings out a Battle Chip and jams in right into his PET chip slot. "Download!"

Spike grunts out as he lifts one of his feet and slams it down to the ground, causing a massive earthquake and causing spires and spikes to erupt from the earth's crust, hitting and impaling viruses, deleting them in big masses.

"Alright!" Sally cheers as she stands behind Malory to witness the action through her PET's screen. "Great job you two!"

Cera roars out her usual ThreeHorn roar as she jumps up onto her hind paws and back up from all four, just having impaled a virus on her horns as it screeched and finally silenced by deletion. "Hah! How do you like that?" She smirks at her work as there isn't a virus to be spotted. "I'd say our work here is done!"

Stephen, who's standing close to the window, turns his head to it to look outside, frowning to see the train still malfunctioning and going at insane speed. "Um…We aren't slowing down!"

"Huh?" Cera exclaims from inside the system, "What do you mean it's not slowing down! I just wasted all the viruses in here!"

Silus looks out the window from his side and shrieks in surprise as another train zooms by window via the tracks next to them, barely caught a glimpse of catching a glimpse of it as that train too was running way too fast. Quickly catching on to the situation, he turns to Malory and the others. "It's not just us! It looks like the whole station has gone nuts!"

"What?" Cera cries out in anger, and her anger gets only fueled as more viruses show up and surrounds both her and Spike. "This is crazy!" Cera grits her teeth as she shoots more viruses while Spike defends with his fists, "If this keeps up it'll only be a matter of time before the train derails or crashes with another!"

Sally is frightened at upon hearing the news, the thought of the train either derailing or crashing with another sends a chill down her spine. She wishes Jason and Kaden were here, they could use all the help they could get right about now…

"Jason…Kaden…" Sally whispers and then takes out her PET. "Ducky, please. Satellite link to the shop and tell Jason and Kaden to get help."

Ducky lowers her eyes and looks away. _""I…Do not know if I can…I am not good satellite linking to other places, no no no…""_

"Please try, Ducky." Sally pleads as she jacks in to another jack-in port. "I know you can do it."

Ducky looks at her NetOp and nods, _""I will try.""_ And with that she transfers out of the PET and travels through the net world.

Silus extends the plug-in cable of his PET and stands next to Stephen. "I'm helping you guys too! Jack in! Petrie! Power up!"

* * *

Rex crosses his arms in front of his body as he tries his best to defend himself against the continuous oncoming bullets of Littlefoot's Vulcan1 buster. Numerous of bullets collide against his body and hurting him as he tries his best to block. He had tried dodging the shots, but the rate of speed of the chip was too much and it overwhelmed him.

Littlefoot stops firing as the Vulcan1 chip loses its power and transforms his arm to normal, leaving Rex standing there with smoke emitting from his body after defending against so many shots at once. His legs quivered and he drops onto his knees, exhausted and hurt from blocking such a barrage.

Kaden was uneasy and nervous as his eyes are on his PET, looking over his Navis' Limb Damage Meter on the screen. Rex's arms are on the orange while his chest is on the yellow; his arms are highly damaged and won't be able to take a lot more if this keeps up. "Rex! Can you stand up?"

Rex slowly picks himself up, his arms and shoulders sagged and limp as he breathes heavily, smoke still rising from his arms and chest. "Yeah…I'm alright…" He replies in-between breaths

"Wow, he's still going." Littlefoot acknowledges Rex's persistence and stamina, he himself have gotten a bit of damage from Rex, so he's pretty excited to have this tough of a challenge from him, especially this being his first time NetBattling.

"We got two chips left so let's make them count!" Kaden reports to his Navi as he takes them out. "Got any ideas on how to use them wisely?"

Rex strains to lift up his arms into position in case Littlefoot does something sneaky and looks around the fire-riddled battlefield. "To be frank I'm not sure…Cannon and MegaFist, I literarily freed the arena from any obstacles."

Kaden looks at the battlefield through the bubble on top of the machine, thinking of a strategy. "Hmm…Wait, I think I have an idea." Kaden whispers and takes out his second Cannon chip. "Cannon, code B! Battle Chip in!" He slots it into his PET. "Download!" Rex's left arm turns again into the green cannon. He takes aim and shoots at Littlefoot.

"This again." Littlefoot mutters as he jumps to the right and out of the way. He dodge rolls to the left to dodge another shot and yelps in surprise as a shot lands right in front of him, making him lose his footing and fall back onto a sitting position. He quickly stands up and jumps back to dodge another shot, followed by another to his right, making him jump to the left. "Geez! It's like he's reading my moves!" Littlefoot comments as he again barely dodges another shot.

"Then let's throw him out of his aim! MiniBomb, code L! Battle Chip in!" Jason jams a total of four chips into his PET, all of them MiniBombs. "Download!"

On Littlefoot's hand he acquires a MiniBomb and chucks it to Rex. As soon as he threw that one another materializes and he throws it again. He does it two more times at Rex, who jumps and dodges the bombs as they hit the ground and blow up. After such shots from Rex's Cannon and explosions from Littlefoot's MiniBombs the arena is practically covered in smoke.

This, apparently, happened to be Kaden's strategy. "Now Rex! MegaFist, code B! Battle Chip in!" He holds the chip up in the air and proceeds to jam it into his PET's chip slot. "Download!"

Rex's right fist soon grows huge and wide, about twice the size of Spike's fists. Rex charges in and jumps as he rears back the fist, aiming right at Littlefoot. "Haaaa!" He cries as he brings his fist down at the Longneck. Unfortunately this happened to be too slow for Littlefoot, who jumps out of the way and avoids the fist all together, leaving Rex's attack to strike hard into the ground and blow smoke into every direction.

Kaden and Jason kept their eyes to the bubble of the machine, watching for any sign of their Navis through the thick smoke. They waited and watched, Kaden hoping the attack really connected.

Back in the battlefield Littlefoot coughs, trying to fan away the smoke as they start to sting his eyes. He rubs at them to get the sting away as he backs away, coughing a bit more. "Close one…Koff…"

"Haaaa!" Littlefoot's eyes snap open upon hearing that, spotting a figure jumping through the smoke and land right in front of him and thrusting its claws to right under his jaw, freezing him in place. It was Rex, his claws are elongated and glowing with cyber energy as they remain inches away from his neck and lower jaw, his position slightly crouched and his torso slightly turned as he poses there with an arched eyebrow and smirk, probably thinking he has the NetBattle won with this. But…

Rex's smirk and cocky expression drops as Littlefoot smirks, this isn't making any sense. Rex notices something to the corner of his eye and looks down at his chest, seeing a red dot right on his crest. Turning his head to the left he spots a station cannon with two muzzles aiming right at him, a red laser taking aim right at his chest. Rex gulps and turns his head to Littlefoot. "Sneaky…"

Jason sighs in relief as he sags on the machine. If he wouldn't have slotted in that MachGun 1 Battle Chip at the last moment he really would've lost this battle.

"Aw man, so close…" Kaden sighs, his shoulders sagging.

"Too close if you ask me." Jason responds as he stands straight. "I gotta say, you and your Navi have us impressed."

"I'll say!" Jason and Kaden turn and notice Haruko sitting on top of the counter, watching the battle. Also customers and other NetBattlers have already entered the store and were watching the NetBattle all this time. Haruko grins as he gets off the counter and approaches the two best friends. "I must say Kaden, you've always had a high spirit for NetBattling but you have impressed me with such a match!"

Kaden grins nervously, "Thanks Haruko, this was really a NetBattle I'll always remem-"

"_Help!"_

Littlefoot and Rex turn to the direction of the voice and witness Ducky teleporting into the battlefield. But she has not teleported alone, for a total of six viruses have accompanied her and are chasing her. Rex runs in and slashes at two viruses, deleting them on the spot while Littlefoot takes his aim and, charging his shot first, releases a good charged shot and deleting the remaining four viruses.

Ducky falls down on a sitting position as she takes a breather, gasping and breathing heavily for air as she's tired out from running away from the viruses chasing her, relieved she finally found Littlefoot and Rex.

"Ducky!" Littlefoot cries as he runs toward her and kneels down next to her. "What are you doing here?"

Ducky takes a deep breath and slowly gets up. "Oh Littlefoot, I am so glad I found you!" She takes another breath and continues, "Sally and the others are in big trouble! The train has gone cuckoo and they need help!"

"What are you talking about?" Kaden inquires as he leans in the bubble. As if on cue everything around them suddenly start to shake as the loud sound of a train quickly picks up in volume and runs right over them, the sound and rumble going away as fast as it came.

"That's weird," Haruko comments as he scratches his chin. "That train came by awfully faster than normal…"

"That is what I am talking about!" Ducky cries as she looks up at Rex and Littlefoot. "The trains are going way too fast and they might hit each other and…" She stutters, grasping her beak with her hands and shaking her head. "Oh I do not want to think about what would happen, no no no…"

"No wonder they're late," Jason points out. "Littlefoot, satellite link back with Ducky and help the others."

Littlefoot nods and turns to Ducky, "Let's go." He and Ducky teleport out of there and head their way to the Train Station's mainframe.

"Jack out, Rex!" Kaden commands, "We're going to the train station ourselves and support them from there!" Rex nods and jacks out into the PET.

"Before you go," Haruko stops Kaden and hands him two Battle Chips. "Take these." Kaden takes the chips and looks at them, AreaSteal code L and ShinyWall code S.

Kaden smiles and looks at Haruko, "Thanks, I'll need them." With that he puts them away and turns to Jason, "Alright, let's go!"

* * *

The viruses keep hacking away at the train station's computer mainframe, destroying the power columns and causing havoc with the Navi guards of the system. Drone grins at the mayhem he and his NetOp has caused with the viruses, admiring the damage they're causing for being such small creatures.

"Hahahah! What a ride!" Netra laughs, "You should see how fast these trains are going about the rails! Makes me wanna stand on top of one of them shout 'Cowabunga'!"

Drone sighs as his NetOps' childish behavior but shrugs it off, "Good idea, maybe you will leave me without an operator and I'll be able to make up my own troubles."

"Awww, you're no fun." Netra mutters. "You're just like the boss."

Drone just scoffs at the comment, but a commotion behind him causes him to turn around and witness the viruses being shot at one by one and being deleted. There stands a Longneck NetNavi, his buster trained on him as the muzzle of his buster emits smoke from recent shots. Behind him, a Swimmer type NetNavi.

"So this is your doing." The Longneck comments, "Turn the station back to normal and stop the trains!"

Drone chuckles as he waves his finger at the Longneck, "Sorry, no can do, that'll ruin my fun." He grins at the Navi. "Who do you think you are telling me what to do?"

The Longneck's eyes narrow a bit more slightly, "Stop your attack and stop the trains, now!"

Drone flexes his claws and smirks at the Longneck, ready to fight. "I would love to see you try to stop me…"

But back on the train station, the call to the Officials has already been issued. And one Official, a female, takes the call and arrives at the station and walks into the control room of the station. She dons a dark blue suit with a dark blue hat, a bracelet on one wrist and a watch on the other. She has black hair and dark brown eyes and a scar across her face from and snakes down between her eyes, across her right eye to down her cheek and stops at her jaw.

She approaches the controls and takes out her purple PET, extending out its plug-in cable. "Let's see what we got here, Grayscale…"

* * *

"On the next chapter of Land Before Time: Battle Network!"

"The stakes are running high with these runaway trains."

"Kaden! Littlefoot's in trouble! We gotta get there before it's too late!"

"What the? What the heck did Cera do to get caught battling this Navi!"

"So much to take care of! It's a race against time and this train isn't slowing down any time soon!"

"Next time on Land Before Time: Battle Network: 'I've had enough of this speeding bullet!'"

"Cheer us on!"


	7. I've had enough of this speeding bullet!

Littlefoot slightly trembles as he keeps his buster cannon trained at the Sharptooth Navi, Drone. As usual Littlefoot is slightly scared as he faces a Sharptooth by himself. Without Jason there to aid him with the battle chips, it's going to take every ounce of skill in him to take this Sharptooth down all by himself. He slightly flinches and grits his teeth as his tail brushes up against Ducky, who's standing right behind him for protection against this Navi. He has to remind himself Ducky is also with him, and she's not really a type of Navi who's really suited for battle. Of course, Littlefoot's not really known to be the bravest Navi of the gang of five when up against a Sharptooth this big and tough. But he'll gather his courage and stand up to them if he has to.

"Hmmm, interesting." Netra acknowledges as he stands there by himself in the train station's warehouse, watching these events through his PET. He thinks to himself the ways he and Drone can waste this Navi as he taps with his fingers his favorite tune the machine that he's leaning on. "We got ourselves a Leaf-Eater dude on our hands here."

Drone scoffs and charges with a cry. "You're dead!"

* * *

Kaden and Jason are on a race against time. Going by what Ducky said, the trains are going so fast it's ridiculous. Any sudden turn with that such a speed they could derail and cause a massive disaster! Or worse, crash into another speeding bullet and double, maybe even triple, the casualties. They had no time to spare; they just have to get to the station, fast!

""_Kaden, the trains are being clocked at extremely over their speed limit."" _Rex informs his Net Op from his PET, going over updates and information about the train situation. _""If they continue to escalate, this is going to end up in a disaster!""_

"I know! I know!" Kaden stresses as he keeps his legs going and his arms pumping as he races down the Garden City streets alongside Jason. "I just can't believe someone would actually do such a thing! What are they trying to prove?"

Jason growls as he keeps up the lead. "Nevermind that! We gotta get to it as fast as we can! Littlefoot and the others need us!"

They quickly turn a corner and continue on down the street another block before making a right and seeing the station in front of them a few feet away. They race down to it but immediately stop at the base of the stairs. To their dismay they find the station crowded, many passengers who were waiting for their train are sitting on benches and crowding the security booth to learn what's going on and what the technicians are doing to fix things. Some are trying to lend their hands to help them while others are demanding the technicians to fix the problem quickly, worried about the passengers stuck in the run-away trains.

"Please calm down!" One of the security personnel attempts to bring the peace to the concerned crowd. "We are doing our best to resolve this problem and save the passengers in the train! Please remain calm and let us do the work! We assure you the safety of the passengers!"

Just as he finished the ground slowly began to shake, getting violently each second until one of the run-away trains zooms by the station, startling the immense crowd at the station. Some scream in horror as they noticed for that split second passengers in the train that just zoomed by while others shout at the security personnel to work faster.

"Stop the trains!"

"Save the passengers!"

"Disaster will happen soon!"

"Please remain calm!" The security personal shouts once again.

The scene is chaos. Jason and Kaden are overwhelmed at how badly the situation is. Just how many of those trains are full…

"This is insane…" Jason whispers just loud enough for his friend to hear.

"Well we can't just stand around here!"

Jason flinches and looks at Kaden, seeing him running off in one direction. Baffled, he follows his friend away from the station and around it near the station's cement fence, running down in an alley following the fence. Jason finally stops at spotting a metal door with a sign saying employees only. Jason gulps, catching up to his friend's idea. "Kaden…Please don't tell me you're…" Kaden nods at him, which causes Jason to gulp again and shake his head. "Are you crazy? We could get in a lot of trouble!"

Kaden inspects the door's lock; a simple one, non-electronic. "Well we can't just sit around when Littlefoot and Ducky are in there going up against who knows what! We also got friends in a train!" Kaden lifts a foot and kicks at the door, failing in his attempt to break down the door.

""_Naturally I would agree with Jason, but you're right. Our friends are in there.""_ Rex speaks out. _""And whether or not the officials are doing something about it, we can't just sit around!""_

"But…" Jason just gives up; it's useless to try to talk Kaden out of it. As far back as he can remember Kaden was always the kind of person who would dive head-first into his plans to help others. That's just the kind of guy he is. Jason jumps a bit at a beeping sound coming from his PET. He gasps and whips it out, noticing the status of his Navi, Littlefoot. It clearly shows he engaged something strong; he's taking a good deal of damage and dishing out attacks as strong as he can. "Littlefoot!" Jason cries out. This was the last thing Jason needed. He looks at Kaden and nods. "All right, break the door down."

Kaden rears back and kicks at the door again, this time managing to kick it open. Quickly they both run through the door and into the station's area. The area is pretty spacious, a few warehouses here and there and train station equipments for maintenance and repairs. The two Net Ops slightly splits up in search of any electronic equipment with a jack-in port, but they fail to find any. "Shoot! I don't see anything to jack into!" Jason cries in frustration.

Kaden looks around for a bit. There's nothing much to this area of the station other than warehouses and train equipments. "Maybe inside one of the warehouses; you try searching them for a jack-in port and find Littlefoot while Rex and I try to find a way to stop these trains!"

Jason nods. "OK, just please don't get caught and start anything."

Kaden chuckles a bit. "Aw c'mon Jason, you worry too much."

""_Umm hello? Trains on a crash course with each other if this keeps up!""_ Rex roars at them from his PET.

Kaden flinches a bit and nods. "Erm right, let's go!"

* * *

The station's mainframe is in peril. The mainframe is riddled with Sharptooth viruses wreaking havoc as they tear their teeth and claws into the mainframe's main circuitry, damaging the data and the information needed to run the station perfectly. Compsognathus and Velociraptor viruses are present along with another virus. This Sharptooth virus is three feet tall with a tanned skin color with a lighter-tan color tone on its underbelly. The virus has two brown crests on its head and tough scale-like armor on its feet from the ankle down and on its arms from the elbow down; its eyes are yellow slits with a black outline, along its back to its tail it has brown stripes along with some cybernetic spikes here and there, its tail as pointy as a knife and its claws on its hands and legs are of pure cybernetic energy like Rex's CyberClaw technique. It screeches as its retractable frill from around its neck opens and out of its mouth spits a gooey poison substance, hitting a power column from the mainframe and it melts through it like a hot knife through butter. These viruses are categorized as the Dilophosaurus viruses, a dangerous virus with poisonous spitting abilities and razor sharp claws.

Compsognathus viruses hack and slash at the columns with their sharp beaks while the Velociraptor viruses shoot at other columns with their icy blue feather projectiles, the damage rapidly increasing. If this keeps up the mainframe will be damage beyond repair and the train station's computer system will be lost.

Three Dilophosaurus viruses screech as their retractable frills open up, ready to spit more venom to the power columns. But before they even get to the chance to cough up a good one a sudden slash goes right through them and cuts them in half, deleting them on the spot. Some Velociraptor and Compsognathus viruses react by turning their fallen comrade, and just then a figure zooms toward them, biting into two of them and whipping the rest of them away with its tail. The remaining viruses screech at their attackers as they witness their comrades, still in the attacker's jaws, screech in agony before succumbing to its sharp teeth and begin to delete.

The attacker is none other than a Sharptooth, much like the viruses themselves. However the difference is painfully apparent for them, for this Sharptooth is none other than from the Alimon series from the Sharptooth Generation.

She's a good sized Alimon, standing around 8 ft tall with her neck held all the way up. Her skin's a sapphire color, with sunflower yellow masking the tip of her snout and coloring her lower jaw, which stretched down her neck, chest, and underside. A dark violet could be seen on the top of her head, down the back of her neck, and along her back with her mane, which goes down from the back of her neck to her shoulder, is a slightly darker shape of purple. Her large paws each ended in four large talons, coated in light gray. Her ankles bore gray bands of cyber-metal with black spikes sticking out. Her tail is completely armored with cyber-metal sections stuck together, first starting in black and then turning into light gray. The tail itself ends in two long blades, one red and the other gray. The scleras are black and the left pupil is orange while the other's yellow. Along her head she wears a black helmet with openings for her eyes and nostrils. Two red cyber-gems are embedded on both sides. Four red spikes grow out of the top of the helmet that touches the top of her muzzle while two long horns, blood-colored, jet out from behind the helmet. Attached to both of her sides are metal bands, light gray with gray spikes sticking out, that attached to a bit of black plate armor attached to her back, which connects to the tail. Three red cyber-gems are embedded on both sides. Around her neck she wears a thin light gray metal necklace with three yellow lightning-shaped cyber-gems dangling from it. Her chest has a yellow circle crest embedded onto it, but no symbol. Her name: Grayscale.

"What do we have here…?" Her Net Op speaks as she surveys the mainframe's situation through her PET. She press a few buttons on her PET before continuing. "Looks like we have a herd to rally up…"

Grayscale stares at the viruses, seemingly uninterested. A Compsognathus virus screeches and charges right at her, ready to slice the Alimon Navi up. Instead the Alimon jumps to the side dodging the slash and grabs the virus by the head. She squeezes and her long claws quickly thrust through the virus' head, not allowing it to even screech in pain before it deleted completely. She calmly turns her attention back at the viruses, who are just screeching at her ready to spring. "Quickly or slowly?" She inquires her Net Op.

"To your liking." The Net Op simply replies.

Grayscale nods and leaps at the viruses. She quickly charges in and leaps, slashing at the viruses she comes across and deleting them on the spot. She stops in the middle of the crowd and does a swift 360 degree, her axe-like tail slamming hard against the viruses that stand in its way and slicing through them, cutting them in half. The victims screech in agony before exploding into data particles as they delete. Her paws skid as she comes to a stop, seeing distant viruses charging for the offense. One Compsognathus virus jumps for the attack with its sharp beak, rearing its head back and then down as it descends to make the stab. Grayscale simply jumps out of the way and swings her tail at the virus the moment it touched ground, slicing it in half vertically. Two Velociraptor viruses screech before lowering their heads, the feathers turning into sharp projectiles and shooting out at the Alimon. But Grayscale simply jumps and the projectiles fly by under her. She does a front flip after curling up into a ball and uncurls as she descends, slamming down on the two Velociraptor viruses, crushing them under her weight and devastating them with her dangerous claws, deleting them.

This is nothing to them, but they were growing bored. "Hmph, Alimon Claws." Her Net Op announces as she takes out a battle chip and slots it into the PET. The Alimon Claws is an enhanced stronger version of the Cyber Claw battle chip, which elongates Grayscale's claws with pure cybernetic energy; longer, stronger and deadlier than the Cyber Claws.

Grayscale flexes her claws and charges. She swings her claws toward the viruses, impaling at least three of them in her now longer claws before slashing two viruses in half. She smirks a bit as the viruses impaled in her claws screech in agony before being deleted; she always knew how to have fun with these claws. She glances to the left to spot two viruses leaping for the attack. She jumps to dodge them and turns in mid-air, her axe-like tip of the tail slicing into them and deleting them. She lands just in time to spot a Dilophosaurus virus opening its retractable frill, ready to spit some of its poison at her. Grayscale simply scoffs and dashes to the right, completely dodging the spit and charges right up to the virus, slamming her Alimon Claws deep into the virus' face, deleting it without it getting a chance to screech in pain.

With that virus done and gone, she slowly turns around to face the last remaining virus. The poor thing is looking around and trembling as he realizes he's the last one left alive. Grayscale smirks as she narrows her eyes. "Boo."

The poor critter did the smart thing and took off, leaving the mainframe.

Grayscale's Net Op scoffed a bit. "Well that was amusing while it lasted…21 deleted viruses in under 5 minutes." She presses a few buttons on her PET. "Mainframe damage isn't devastating, but pretty heavy…"

"And where are the Officials?" Grayscale inquires as she looks around the damaged mainframe.

Her Net Op keeps pressing buttons on her PET as she scans and surveys the mainframe's connected links and computers. "They're busy with the other mainframes of the other stations. We're just fast in our work, as usual." She continues pressing and manages to hack her way into one of the run-away trains' motherboard mainframe. "Now, let's see what we have in the trains' controls…" She enters a specific train and her eyes slightly widen, amused. "What do we have here…?"

Intrigued by her Net Op's tone of voice, Grayscale access the streaming surveillance link of the train's motherboard mainframe to see what her Net Op is seeing. Immediately she catches the figure of a Leaf-Eater NetNavi running down the mainframe in battle with two other Leaf-Eater Navis. Grayscale growls as she sees this. "No surprise there…"

Her Net Op slightly closes her eyes, closing the streaming link from her PET. "We found the troublemakers…Grayscale, you know what to do. Show no mercy."

"Wouldn't do it any other way…" Grayscale closes her eyes and disintegrates into hundreds of purple particles of cybernetic energy, transporting herself to the train's mainframe.

* * *

"Nope! Not in here!"

Kaden was barging into the numerous warehouses in the station trying to find what he was looking for, but every warehouse he gets into there's nothing but a mere little computer and a bunch of equipment lying around. He runs to the center of the area and looks around, panting to catch his breath while holding his PET in his left hand.

""_No luck?"" _Rex asks.

"Nope, nothing." Kaden shakes his head as he looks around, unable to tell the difference between the warehouses, worried he must be going around in circles checking the same warehouses over and over again. He looks up and barely looses his footing as another train zooms by the tracks above him, causing the ground to shake and his ears suffering from the extremely loud noise from above.

""_That didn't sound good.""_ Rex comments, concerned. ""_Time's running out!""_

"Argh! I know that!" Kaden shouts in frustration. His head goes back and forth trying to find something. He continues to run down the huge area to explore again, this time making a left where he took a right. He stops running after turning another corner and looks to his right as he catches his breath, spotting a shack; a nice change from the usual warehouses.

"Maybe in there…" Kaden tells to himself. He runs toward it and peeks through the window, spotting a teenager wearing a green sweatshirt and a spiky hairdo inside the building. Kaden crouches low as he keeps looking into the building as to not get noticed.

"Heheh, doing bad things…" The teenager says in a sing-along voice.

Kaden blinks, managing to overhear him through the glass. "Huh?"

"Gonna give these people a ride they won't soon forget…" He continues in that annoying sing-along voice. "And then they will all go boom! Heheh, I love this."

Kaden's eyes widen as he gasps. This must be the guy who's responsible for all of this! Although, his gasp was a little too loud and got the guy's attention, prompting Kaden to duck under the window to hide. He curses under his breath, believing he was caught. But as he waited, nothing; maybe he didn't saw him after all. Just when Kaden was about to take another peek he hears the shack's door opening, making him get back down and hold his breath, praying.

"All right. Now that should take care of the whole train system's mainframe. Oooh the fireworks are gonna be awesome!" The teenager began talking to himself, bragging about what he's doing. "So Drone! Are you having fun with that Long-Neck?"

Kaden arches an eyebrow. Drone? Must be his Navi. And as for that Long-Neck…It's got to be Littlefoot! Kaden had two options here: Either take down the culprit right there and then or let him go and save his friends by doing something about whatever he did to that control room in the shack. Needless to say, friends win hands down.

"Heheh, all right." Drone talks again, must be directed to his Navi. "You do that, I'll just mosey on over to the last computer mainframe and work my magic."

Ugh. Mosey on over? Work his magic? Kaden just felt a huge urge to just punch him in the face. The guy was just so…So…So lame!

""_Kaden! What are you doing?"" _Kaden snaps out of it upon hearing his Navi's voice scold at him. _""He just left! He's the one behind all of this! We gotta go after him!""_

Kaden peeks out, seeing that the culprit really did left. Rex does have a point to go after the guy, but he can't just forget about the trains. Every second he gets off track is another second the trains are closer to crash or derail. Kaden shakes his head as he gets up. "No time! We gotta do something about the trains!" He dashes toward the open door as he reaches to the strap and takes out his PET, sliding down its cover and extending out the jack-in cable. "I'm jacking you in!"

* * *

"Gah!" Littlefoot falls and skids on the ground after being knocked down for the third time since his NetBattle started with the Deinonychus, Drone. The Longneck has been tackled, bruised and slashed during the course of the battle, but despite all this punishment he insists on continuing the battle. While the fight raged on Ducky was hiding behind one of the mainframe's power columns, hoping and praying that Littlefoot will pull through and come out on top.

"Nnngh…" Littlefoot grunts as he slowly picks himself up, training his buster at Drone as he huffs and puffs for breath.

"I'd say, you're pretty persistent…" Drone smirks as he flexes his claws, slowly lifting his arm and aiming his claws at the Long-Neck Navi. "I guess I should be thankful for that, it makes me much more entertaining for me."

Littlefoot gulped as he trains his buster at Drone, a bit shakily. His eyes narrow and he shoots a shot, which Drone easily dodges as he jumps over it and charges at Littlefoot. The Longneck ducks to avoid a slash and jumps to the side in a roll, dodging a sudden kick from the Deinonychus. He quickly gets up on one knee and shoots at Drone, not letting up in his offense. But the bullets seem to be going in slow motion for Drone as he dodges each of them with little effort. Littlefoot growls and continues firing, unable to believe just how fast this Navi can move.

"Hahah, pathetic twerp!" Drone taunts with a malicious grin. "How can you believe you can stop me if you can't even touch me?" He jumps over a shot and stops right in front of Littlefoot, startling the Navi. He rears his arm back and sends it down against Littlefoot's chest with an uppercut punch, knocking him up into the air and away onto the ground again a few feet away.

"Aaagh!" Littlefoot cries as he lands hard on the ground, static emerging from the striking away on his chest as the crest which resides there has cracked from the force of the blow. He painfully clutches the striking area as he slightly picks himself up to eye at his opponent. The Sharptooth Generation is really something else, it's a reason why Leaft-Eater Navis fear them and prefer to keep away from them, usually wanting to run away from them and hide and only fight them if they have no choice. They are fierce and powerful, often overpowering their victims before ripping them apart. Survival of the fittest…

""_Wassup, Drone."" _A voice rings out from nowhere. That's when Littlefoot notices the crest on Drone's chest light up for two seconds before dying down. No doubt: Drone's Net Op has jacked in again to rendezvous with his Navi. _""I see you've been having fun without me, as usual.""_

"Shut your pipe-hole!" Drone snaps at his Net Op as he folds his arms. "I've managed to save some meat for you to waste too. So be grateful!"

""_You and your attitude."" _His Net Op comments with a sour attitude. _""But whatever, I've had my share of fun. And soon, this train station will be ground zero for our most devilish netcrime yet!""_

Littlefoot's eyes widen. No! The others! They're gonna die just because of these two monsters! Littlefoot closes his eyes as he pushes himself to get up to his feet; his limbs are bit shaky from all the damage he's suffered as he picks himself up. "I…Won't let you get away with this…!"

Drone smirks. "Heheheh, this just keeps getting better and better!"

""_Now I can have some fun with him too!"" _Drone's Net Op exclaims with excitement. _""Slice him up with some Cyber Claws, Drone!""_

Littlefoot gasps in horror as Drone's already lethal claws grow longer and even more dangerous. Being hit by those from a Sharptooth is just asking for deletion. Drone smirks and charges, rearing his arm back for a slash at the Longneck, marking his neck as the target. Littlefoot shook away his fears and aims at the incoming Drone, who easily runs aside and dodges the shot. He looks around trying to find his opponent when he feels a presence behind him. He turns around and gasps to see Drone standing behind him and, with a malicious grin from Drone, takes a nasty slap to the face, knocking him away and down to the ground. Littlefoot grunts from the hit and slowly gets up on his hands and knees, but as he just picks his head up he sees the tip of a cyber claw in front of his face. He slowly looks up in fear to see Drone, towering over him and aiming his claws down at his face.

Drone smirks upon seeing the Longneck's face filled with terror. "I wonder if I should make you scream in agony before tearing you apart, limb by limb…"

""_Ho-ho! I vote a yes to that!"" _His Net Op adds with glee. Drone just grins at his Net Op's approval and lifts his arm as high as he could, prepared to delete the Navi.

"No no no! Stop!"

Drone flinches and almost loses his footing as a certain three foot tall DuckBill Navi has jumped onto his back and placed their hands over his eyes, blinding him and burdening him. Drone shouts as he trashes around, trying to shake off the interrupter from his back. "Aaargh! You little twerp! Get off of me!"

Ducky just hanged tight as she keeps her eyes closed. She couldn't just stand there hiding in fear and let Littlefoot get deleted. Granted she wasn't created with a buster to defend herself since her short build and status could allow her to easily hide under water and into small caves. She didn't bother to answer as she held on with her hands over Drone's eyes, grunting in fear as she holds on in an attempt to save Littlefoot's life.

""_Hey you stupid Swimmer! This isn't some sort of rodeo!"" _Drone's Net Op curses. _""Shake him off, Drone!""_

Littlefoot watched in fear as Ducky risked her neck to save him. He gasps when Drone manages to reach behind him, grab Ducky and yank him off of his back and throws her against a power column, the impact slightly crooking the column as Ducky slams onto it with a yelp. Littlefoot slowly gets up, "Ducky…"

Drone angrily growls at the down DuckBill, bearing his razor sharp teeth at her. "You…pathetic DuckBill!" Drone flexes his cyber claws and rears back his arm for the kill. "I'll kill you!"

Ducky gasps and closes her eyes as she curls herself up, cowering as her end seems to be at hand; but not if Littlefoot has anything to say about it. The Longneck quickly aims his buster and shoots, hitting Drone's back head-on. The shot was enough to power Drone down, making him scream in pain before falling to his knees in pain. Littlefoot quickly went in and grabbed Drone's tail. With all the strength he could muster he pulls on Drone's tail and circles around repeatedly until he gathers enough momentum and releases him, whipping him away and against a power column, denting it from the blow. "Aaagh!" He cries out in pain as he slumps down the column.

"Ducky!" Littlefoot cries as he runs up to his Duck-Bill friend after throwing Drone away. "Are you alright?"

Ducky peeks out and uncurls as she sees her Longneck friend kneeling down to check on her. She sighs in relief and nods. "Oh yes, I am all right. But I am more worried about you."

Littlefoot smiles and wipes his forehead with a sigh of relief. "I'm alright, the damage isn't severe."

"It will after this…"

Littlefoot and Ducky gasps at hearing the voice, unable to believe how fast that Navi recovered from a shot to the back and being thrown against a power column. Littlefoot looks over his shoulder to see Drone up on his feet, his teeth exposed as his lips are curled back in anger, his claws exposed as he flexes his hands. Drone snarls and holds out his arm, his hand changing into a bulky red cannon with a yellow circle on each side and underside. His Net Op downloaded an M-Cannon chip when their backs were turned.

"A Mega Cannon?" Littlefoot points out.

"I do not like this. No no no!" Ducky comments as she shakes his head.

""_Blast them to pieces, Drone! Waste them!"" _Drone's Net Op demands.

Drone grins. "For once I agree with you." His eyes narrow and he shoots, a humongous plasma shot erupts from the cannon's muzzle and flies straight to the Longneck and Duck-Bill. Littlefoot and Ducky stare in horror as the shot flies toward them, eager to land smack onto them and disintegrate them both within its blast radius. Just when things were looking horrible for them littlefoot's cracked crest suddenly glows. And barely a second later has a miracle happened.

An invisible barrier forms in front of Littlefoot and takes the shot, protecting Littlefoot and Ducky as the shot blows up on contact with the barrier and engulfs them both in a huge cloud of smoke. As no moment stirs in the area Drone and his Net Op considered those two Leaf-Eaters deleted, but it all came crashing down when the smoke screen cleared. "What? No way!"

Littlefoot stands there along with Ducky just as the smoke screen clears, not a scratch on them from the shot. The cracked crest on Littlefoot's chest is repaired as it glows for two seconds before dying down. Drone growls, this punk's Net Op is here.

"Good timing, Jason." Littlefoot comments with a smile.

"Heheh!" Jason chuckles as he's now in a two-story warehouse on the second floor, his PET's jack-in cable plugged in the warehouse's main computer. "Better late than never, I guess!" Jason puts away his used Barrier chip and takes out another. "I brought you a little something! TreeStar, code T! Battle Chip in!" He immediately slots the chip into the PET. "Download!"

Littlefoot looks up and holds out his hand as above him a small blue cube shows up and materializes what looks like a leaf in shape of a star. Its texture moist and juicy as the leaf seems damp in water. It gently floats down onto Littlefoot's hand before he grabs it and looks at it, seeing the leaf's water drops sliding down onto the center, creating a little puddle where he can see his face on its reflection. With a smile Littlefoot bites into it, eating it up in three quick bites. He giggles and wipes his mouth from the leaf's water as he's suddenly surrounded in a green aura, recovering fifty percent of his HP and damage. "Ahhh, that's some good TreeStars!" Littlefoot comments with a smile. "Thanks Jason!"

Ducky giggles and looks at Littlefoot. "No TreeStars for me? You are mean, Jason!"

This comment made Littlefoot laugh, even Jason can be heard laughing through the PET. However, this just angered Drone as he snaps at them. "Hey! How dare you take a lunch break on us!"

"Yeah! That's just not cool!" Drone's Net Op shouts, gripping his PET tightly and slamming a fist into the metallic wall of the warehouse he's in. "You're going to pay for that with your lives!" He takes out a battle chip and slots it in. "Shred them, Drone! LongClaws!"

Drone slightly lowers his head as he holds out his arm to the side, his claws turning into Cyber Claws, but the difference with Long Claws is the length, now being twice as long compared to the CyberClaws.

"We'll match them!" Jason cries as he takes out a Battle Chip of his own. "CyberSword, code S! Battle Chip in!" He immediately jams the chip into the PET. "Download!"

Littlefoot holds out his arm to the side and his hand changes into a round base which from it protrudes out a sword made of cybernetic energy. Littlefoot has the advantage here. CyberSword differs from CyberClaws in the length and handling. CyberClaws changes the claws of the Navi into cybernetic claws, a bit longer than normal claws and are pretty dangerous when used by Sharptooth Navis. However, CyberSwords are much longer and can easily outmatch CyberClaws. But in the right hands, CyberClaws _can_ outperform the CyberSword and beat it.

Drone smirks, not being faced by the advantage the Leaf-Eater has. "Come Longneck, and face me!" He brings back his arms and charges.

Littlefoot takes a deep breath and charges, holding out his CyberSword to the side. "Fine! Here I come!"

As they near Littlefoot swings his CyberSword up and swings it down to Drone, who brings up his arms and catches the sword with his CyberClaws. As they engage in this lock static begins to start at the grip, showing the raw power between them both as two chips engage.

* * *

Cera and Spike run down the deepest part of their train's mainframe while Petrie followed them from the sky. They have taken out many viruses along the way and are now heading toward where they are coming from. A Compsognathus virus screeches as it jumps to attack Spike, but the gentle giant growls and rears back one of his massive fists and punches the virus down, deleting it with little effort.

"So many Sharptooth!" Petrie complains as he flies. "Me don't like this!"

Cera roars as she rams into a gang of Velociraptor viruses, deleting them with her horn. She skids on her feet as she stops the charge and looks up at Petrie. "Aw quit your whining! At least you're not down here having to smell their icky breath!"

Petrie shudders and flaps his wings to get a bit higher. "No thank you! Petrie fine up here where sky is nice and clean!"

Cera snorts and looks ahead as screeches pierce the air. A band of flying white Sharpteeth is making their way toward them, at least four. These viruses look roughly the size of a medium-size modern-day bird, at least 2 feet in body length. Their wings, which have bone-like frames around light-blue cyber-energy wings, are rounded at the ends with three little grey fingers armed with sharp claws. Their long, bony tails have distinctive grey pointy feathers which they could shoot as projectiles like the Velociraptor virus' feathers on the back of their heads; it also could be used to whip at their victims, using those same feathers to damage. Inside their mouth they have small teeth, perfect to give little but numerous damage. They have some grey-yellow lightning-like designs from their eyes down each side of their body and to the tail, their eyes are circular of bright yellow color, and their beaks are slightly blunt but they make up for it with their teeth. These viruses are classified as Archaeopteryx viruses, but they're mostly called as BluntBeak viruses to avoid such a mouth-full name.

Cera gasps but keeps her cool. "Petrie, look out! BluntBeaks!"

Petrie looks up ahead and screams upon seeing them. They may be small, but they can be fast and deadly. "Oh no! Not them!" Petrie quickly flaps his wings and turns around to get away from them, but BluntBeaks are known for their speed, they were quick to catch up to Petrie and block his path. The flyer screams again and turns around, but getting away is going to be impossible.

"Petrie!" Silus cries from inside the train.

"He's going to be toast if he keeps trying to run away." Malory comments as she watches the action from her own PET.

"No, Petrie!" Sally cries as she watches through Stephen's PET.

Silus watches in fear as his Navi tries to flee from these viruses. Silus wasn't too into NetBattling, he was mostly the pacifist one along with Sally. He would always choke when Petrie comes across a virus, which is why he avoids getting into the net without anybody along with him.

"Stupid flyers! Shoo!" Cera shouts as she jumps into the air trying to swat the BluntBeaks away, trying to save Petrie. But the viruses screech at Cera and fly circles around her, avoiding her noble attempt. One of them does get hit, but clings to life and doesn't delete. One of them takes offense of this and screeches, its wings glowing as it charges. When Cera notices it's too late, the virus flaps its wings and an energy beam fueled with electricity shoots out from the wings, hitting Cera head-on and shocking her with thousands of volts of electricity. She screams from the shock and falls out of the sky, slamming onto the ground.

"Cera!" Malory cries as she witnesses her PET's Limb Damage Meter program come up on the upper left corner of her PET screen, showing Cera's torso in the meter flash red before showing Cera's torso's current status: still green.

"Aaaaah!" Petrie screams as he still has the viruses following him. "Help Petrie! Help Petrie!" He screeches as he flies circles around Spike and hides behind him. Spike moans a 'huh?' as he looks at Petrie hiding behind him before looking in front of him and seeing the viruses flying right for him. He moans a scream and covers his eyes. Despite everything they go through they're still programmed to be kids.

"Spike, look out!" Stephen cries as he takes out a Battle Chip. "Spiketail Guard, code S!"

A shield materializes in front of Spike, a dark-green shield with a thick line in the middle from the top down with 3 plates on each side of the thick line, resembling a Spiketail's back. The viruses were going at such a high-speed they couldn't stop in time and, with a sickening crash, they all collide against the rock-hard shield. One of them deletes while the other three slide off and down to the ground. Spike slowly uncovers his eyes, wondering why the viruses haven't collided against him. He's confused at the sudden darkness in front of him, but he notices the handle in front of him and he grabs it, moving the shield aside and noticing the dazed viruses on the ground in front of him.

"Phew," Stephen sighs in relief. "That was close…"

Spike looks curiously at the viruses on the ground, but he gasps in surprise as Cera jumps in and crushes them all with her strong front legs, grinding her foot down onto them and deleting them. Petrie, who was shaking hiding behind Spike covering his eyes, slowly moves his hands from his eyes, noticing the viruses have been dealt with already.

With a glare Cera gets up on her normal stance. "I HATE BluntBeaks…"

Malory shakes her head and looks at Silus, who's looking down at the ground shakily, ashamed. "I-I'm sorry, guys…I…Just froze there…"

Stephen and Sally look at Silus sympathetically. They know about his phobia of the viruses and NetBattling. Ever since that first virus he encountered with Petrie, how it almost deleted him. And when he witnessed Cera's deletion a few months ago, that sealed him with this phobia.

Malory sighs. "Then why did you jacked-in in the first place?"

It was during this second of distraction that it happened. Spike groans a scream as a sharp blade pierces through his back, almost going through his chest. Cera swirls to face Spike while Petrie screams. This prompted the Net Ops back to their PETs. "Spike!" Stephen screams. Spike drops his Spiketail Guard shield and slowly drops forward, the damage was too much and he was forced to jack out to avoid deletion from any further attacks. Cera stands there in shock while Petrie took flight and flew to Cera's side.

The creature that attacked Spike holds her tail up behind her as she stands there on all four. She stands there with a cold glare at the two remaining Leaf-Eaters, a glare of hatred. This is a Sharptooth Navi from the Alimon series. And from the looks of it, she doesn't look too happy to see them.

"Sharptooth!" Petrie shouts in fear as he dives behind Cera to hide. The Alimon slowly lowers her head, exposing a sight of her horns to them. She doesn't seem interested in dialogue; she just wants to fight them.

Malory glares at the Alimon through her PET screen and looks at Silus. "Jack Petrie out, now! We'll take care of this!"

Silus silently nods. As he reaches out to the cable to jack Petrie out, the flyer looks up at Cera, "Ooohh…Be careful, Cera." He tells the ThreeHorn before jacking out of the system.

Cera glares at the Alimon. "You're gonna pay for hurting my friend!" She drops down on all four and charges at the Alimon with a roar, her horn aimed right at her. The Alimon snarls and charges, lowering her head for the ram. Their skulls collide with each other, and to Cera's surprise her horn didn't even put a dent on the Alimon, her skull-like helmet seems to be protecting her head from her horn. Cera shoves the Alimon forward trying to overpower her, but her paws merely kicks up dirt and skids as the Alimon doesn't budge.

"No way! That guy's as tough as Cera!" Malory spits as she notices her Navi isn't budging the Alimon.

"Hmph, this guy's a she…" the Alimon speaks for the first time before rearing back and shoving Cera with a powerful force, pushing her away and turning her over, slamming her down on her back.

"Gah!" Cera grunts as she slams down on her back. With a growl she turns herself over and up on all four. "Well _lady_, you better leave before I hurt you!"

The Alimon just glares, unfazed by Cera's comment. "Hmph, you best worry about yourself Leaf-Eater scum…"

Cera growls. "What did you called me?"

The Alimon slightly grins, amused. "You heard me."

Cera growls as she kicks up dirt with her front paws/hands. "That's it! I'm gonna shut you up!"

"Show that Sharptooth what you got, Cera!" Malory cries as she takes out a Battle Chip. "CyberHorn, code C! Battle Chip in!" She jams the Battle Chip into her PET.

Cera lowers her heard as her horn begin to glow as they slowly grow. When the glow dies down her horn is now longer with a now menacing glow from the horn's cybernetic energy structure. Now the Alimon's helmet can't protect her from this. With a smirk Cera charges with her horn aimed at the Alimon.

"Gore her, Cera!" Malory cheers.

The Alimon shakes her head with a frown; this won't end well for the ThreeHorn. She waits for the precise moment and, almost at the last second, she jumps over Cera, leaving her charging at nothing. Cera growls as she realizes the Alimon just dodged her and she stops with a skid. But the Alimon is just getting started. She gasps as she felt her tail being grabbed and suddenly pulled off her feet, falling flat on the ground on her stomach. She then felt herself airborne and thrown away, brutally slammed against a column of the mainframe, denting the column and nearly cracking it in two. "Aaarrgh!"

"Whoa!" Silus exclaims after seeing such a move through his PET. Despite having his Navi jacked out, having the jack-in cable still connected to the computer can allow him to see what's going on in the mainframe. "That Sharptooth is fast!"

"I've never seen anything like it…" Sally comments. "This is bad…"

Malory just watches through her PET, biting her lower lip as dots perspiration riddle her forehead. She has never gone up against a Sharptooth like this, and Cera is getting clobbered badly. The fight just started and Cera's torso in the Limb Damage Meter is already yellow. She tries to keep her cool as she tries to reach for a Battle Chip, but even a cool-headed arrogant NetBattler like her knows when she's in trouble.

Sally takes her eyes off of Malory's PET and looks into her own. She hasn't heard a word from Ducky nor Kaden and Jason, and quite frankly this is starting to get her nervous. Gravity suddenly shifts and pushes Malory, Silus and Sally to the left, almost making them lose their footing and fall to the ground as the runaway train takes a hard curve. They manage to grab onto the train's poles to keep them from falling, but for how long they'll be able to endure this. The train is apparently taking up speed as it goes, and it'll be a matter of time before two trains collide or they go off the railing. They're puzzled as to why they haven't done so already.

"Argh! This is ridiculous!" Malory shouts in anger as she takes out a Battle Chip. "We gotta stop this stupid train! Out of our way, you stupid Sharptooth!" She curses at the Alimon through her PET as she slots in a Battle Chip.

Sally couldn't bear to continue watching. As she grabs onto the pole to keep herself from falling in the shifting and trembling train she looks around the cabin, noticing Stephen sitting on one of the chairs pressing buttons on his PET. She recalls how badly Spike got attacked from behind, causing him to jack out. Trying to keep her balance she walks over to Stephen and sits down next to her brother. "Stephen? Is Spike OK?"

Stephen gives a slow nod. "Yeah, he's just heavily damaged, but nothing a good rest won't fix." He continues pressing a few buttons. "Man, one hit and his torso area went up to the red and the program just shut down, it was too much…"

"Agh! No!" Malory shouts in frustration, causing Sally and Stephen to look at her. She previously slotted in a SkyPuffy chip to blind and disorient the Alimon so Cera can stealthfuly charge up to the Alimon and knock her with her CyberHorn. But this plan failed as the Alimon saw her coming and avoids her, using her own chip against her and pounce Cera to the ground, tearing her teeth into the side of Cera's neck.

Cera hollers in agony as the Alimon's teeth sink into her neck, light-blue sparks and static emitting from the area as the Alimon's teeth grind against her skin. She's lucky her Navi Customization is top-notch with some defense; otherwise this would've been the end of her.

"Cera!" Malory shouts in despair, but once again the train takes another turn and throws both Sally and Stephen off their seats and to the ground, while Silus and Malory loses their grip on the pole and fall to the floor, Battle Chips strewn all over the floor from Malory's pockets. "Agh! Dang it!" Malory curses as she tries to get her Battle Chips together from the ground.

She manages to get her hand on a Vulcan1 chip and slotting it into her PET, which changes one of Cera's hands into an orange buster with three gatling muzzles. She struggles and presses the buster against the Alimon's chest and fires, hitting her and getting her off of her while giving her slight damage.

The Alimon back flips in the air and lands on her feet, glaring at the ThreeHorn Navi. "Hmph, stubborn fool…" She speaks while watching the ThreeHorn rub her wounded neck and slowly get up on her hands and knees, one of her hands still as the Vulcan Buster. Cera growls and aims at the Alimon with her Vulcan Buster, shooting 6 bullets per second to strike the Alimon. But the Alimon proves to be faster than the Vulcan Buster as she runs, dodging each and every shot with a good speed.

Malory scrambles around the floor grabbing her Battle Chips. She finds one of her chips, Mega Fist, when she notices the Alimon getting closer to Cera. She immediately turns over onto her back and jams the Mega Fist chip into her PET. The Alimon lunges at her by the time Cera's other arm turns into a giant orange fist. By that time it was too late to dodge. Cera rears her huge fist back and punches the Alimon head-on, knocking her far back and against a column. Unfortunately this victory was short lived as the Alimon quickly jumps from the rubble and charges at high speed as a red aura surrounds her. Her Net Op downloaded an Alimon Rage chip, a chip for exclusive use to the Alimons, which increases the Alimon's speed and strength for seven seconds.

Cera had little time to react when the Alimon collided head-on against her, headbutting her with tremendous force. "Agh!" Cera skids and bounces across the mainframe as the Alimon doesn't let up and catches up to her, slashing her from the stomach up to her chin during one of her bounces, knocking her up into the air for her to land hard onto the ground. It took the Alimon seven seconds to completely own her in such a manner.

"Cera!" Malory shouts through her PET upon seeing her Navi being thrown about like that. The Limb Damage Meter proved just how fatal the attack was, changing the torso damage to a blood red and the head area to a dark yellow. "Cera! C'mon, get up!" Malory pleads, horrified by the fact that this Sharptooth will delete her.

"Hmph, you're finished!" The Alimon shouts as she charges, jumps and points her tail down at Cera as she descends. "Dagger Tail!"

"Malory!" Silus cries as he reaches into his pocket for a Battle Chip and throws it to Malory, who in turn catches the chip and immediately slots it in. As quickly as she did Cera disappears from her position, letting the Alimon's attack slam down onto the ground. The Alimon growls a bit as she looks down at her tail, the axe-like tip of it encrusted into the ground. She raises her head and sniffs the air, then quickly looking over her shoulder finding Cera a few feet away from her. They downloaded an AreaSteal chip to save her life. "Persistent…" She mumbles. "I must delete her soon or else this train madness will continue…"

The gang in the train sighs in relief, but then the train takes another quick curve and knocks them all back to the floor, a sickening screech is heard just as the train takes the turn. The gang groans as they're in a dog pile; Silus at the bottom, followed by Malory, Sally and Stephen. Stephen slowly picks himself up and looks out the window, managing to see the rails which they are headed for. He suddenly screams upon seeing it. "Aaaahh! Guys! A train is headed this way!"

The gang gasps and jumps up to their feet, looking out the window to see that Stephen is right! A train is coming this way at high speed! At that speed they're gonna be killed for sure in the crash! The gang screams as the two trains come closer and closer. It appears like the end for them…

Until the train takes a sudden jerk to the right, throwing everyone to the ground with a yell and rolling to the right, crashing against the wall on the right side. Silus slowly sits up rubbing his head. "Ow…What the heck…?"

The train suddenly changed rails and completely avoided a crash with the other train. But with the system offline and haywire, how was that manageable? Let's step back a bit in time to another person who, like Malory and Jason, is bent on saving them…

* * *

"Jack in! Rex! Power up!"

Rex touches down inside the main computer mainframe system of the train station. He opens his eyes and gets up, walking a bit forward and leaning on a railing to look at the bottom level. He's currently standing on the third level of the mainframe. Down on the second floor there's a simple path which stretches to numerous paths. He takes note of levers strewn around the area, around twelve or so at least. The bottom floor is what intrigues him the most. It's like a giant miniature version of the Garden City Train Station, like a toy train station a few times bigger which the trains are about 4 feet tall. There are about six of them, and if Rex is right that's the same amount of trains the Garden City Train Station owns.

"Wow." Rex comments as he sees all this. "The bottom floor is an exact replica of the train station."

""_Keep an eye out, Rex.""_ Kaden warns. _""We don't know what that guy did in here. We might find viruses.""_

"I'll be careful." Rex turns to the right and sees stairs headed for the second floor. Without fear he runs to it and descends the stairs, stopping at the base to look around the maze of paths. Each one are connected to each other, but he doesn't have a clue at what to do. Plus the levers strewn around this floor have his curiosity. He walks down one path and leans against a railing to look down at the miniature train station below, seeing the trains zooming by the paths and taking the turns at deadly speeds. Rex looks at the lever close-by, then back at the rails below. He spots an alternate path on the rail which seems to lead to another path which leads to a long path and ends with a curve and onto another long path before it reaches a dead-end. There are about ten of these dead-ends.

"Take a look at that." Rex starts. "I bet those tracks are where they keep the trains for maintenance and overnight."

""_Yeah, I've seen those tracks in the real one.""_ Kaden adds.

"So this train station replica is a link to the computers in the trains. And the train programs down there imitate the speed, direction and situation the real trains are in." Rex looks at the lever close by and then glances down at the tracks. "If I guess right these levers changes the directions on the tracks to the alternate tracks the lever corresponds."

""_Which means…""_ Rex looks up as he hears Kaden gasps. _""If the train programs crash with each other, that means the trains actually crashed! Rex! You gotta pull the levers to change the trains' direction and stop them from crashing!""_

"Yeah. And if the train programs _are _linked to the actual train's mainframe, that means I can transport myself to them if I get in contact with the corresponding train's program!"

""_They're all counting on us, Rex! We just can't fail!""_

Rex nods and runs to the lever, already seeing a train coming to its corresponding alternate path. He grabs it and pulls it, changing the tracks below the lever. Just as he suspected the train took the alternate path, now heading down the long track to the dead-end while in the real world the change reflects and the actual track changes route, the real train taking the alternate route just like the train avatar in the mainframe did.

Now Rex has to prove his next theory. He runs after the train in the path and jumps off the platform and to the floor below, landing right on top of the train program. Immediately to the touch he disintegrates and teleports into the train program, wirelessly transporting to the corresponding train's mainframe in the real world. He touches down in the actual train's mainframe; in front of him the train's brake system. With a smile he runs up to it, but as the distance closes between him and the system a BluntBeak virus jumps out from the system and attacks Rex.

"Agh!" Rex falls back as the virus flies close by his head, taking to the skies and dive-bomb down toward him. Rex immediately changes his arm to a buster and shoots, hitting the virus and deleting it, screeching as it dies. Rex immediately turns around and rushes to the braking system. "OK, found the trigger." Rex informs his Net Op as he grabs onto the huge switch and pushes it down. The mainframe suddenly shakes as he did so, the hum that was sounding in the mainframe slowly coming to a complete silence.

""_Hey! I just heard a very loud screeching sound!"" _Kaden reports to his Navi.

"Hahah! It worked!" Rex cheers as he pumps his arms. Suddenly he disintegrates and moves out of the mainframe and touches down on the third floor of the station's mainframe. He slightly shakes his head from his disorientation. "Whoa…"

""_Rex! You OK?""_

"Yeah, I'm alright." Rex shakes his head again and looks around. "I'm back at the mainframe. I must've gotten transported back when I finished with the train program."

""_Well that's one down, five more to go. Let's hustle!""_

Rex nods and runs, already going down the stairs to the second floor and down a path. While running he keeps looking at the giant station below, keeping an eye out for which train to take on next. To tell the truth all of them were going at a very fast speed, it'll be a disaster if Rex spots two of them going on a collision course and he'd have to pull a Sonic to run to the correct lever and change the routes. And he can't actually jump down onto a train to get to its brake system to stop it in the middle of the tracks; it'd be a sitting duck for a collision. Rex just runs to a lever and grabs onto it, stopping and waits for a train to come by. Luckily one didn't take long to take a turn at a deadly speed to his tracks. With a quick pull of the lever the track turns to the alternate one, the train going along to the alternate route.

Rex did the same thing he did for the last one. Run after it and jump onto it, the simple touch to it disintegrating him and wirelessly link him to the train's mainframe. Learning from the last one, Rex has his arm as the buster already as he runs to the train's brake system. Just as he suspected a virus came out of the brake system, which Rex just lifted his buster and shot at the virus, deleting it. Not wanting to waste any seconds he runs up to the huge switch and pulls it down, activating the train's brakes and getting the train to a slow stop.

"Heard this train's screech as well, Kaden?" Rex asks for a confirmation.

""_No. But I noticed the train was around the Business District when you went after it in the main mainframe so I couldn't hear it from way out here. I'm sure it stopped though.""_

Rex nods. "Alright, that's two down, four to go. We gotta hurry before we miss one of them and crashes into another!"

Like last time an automated program transports Rex back to the main computer's mainframe. He didn't waste time in waiting for the disorientation to go away, he runs down the stairs and down the paths again. He spots a train close-by and he follows it, managing to outrun it to an alternate route. He quickly grabs the lever and pulls it, changing the direction and getting the train into the alternate route. After doing so he quickly dives down onto the train head-first, teleporting to its mainframe with just one touch. He appears in the train's mainframe in the same position, diving head-first to the ground and instead of doing a face-plant he tucks his head in and rolls when he touches ground, immediately springing to his feet after the roll and runs to the train's brake system.

"CyberClaw!" Rex cries as he taps into his Chip Memory Navi Custom program, slicing in half the virus that pops out from the train's brake system. He immediately grabs the switch and pulls it down, activating the train's brakes and slowly stopping the train altogether.

""_Alright! I heard that one's brakes screech! Three more to go!""_

Rex sighs in relief as he pats some dirt off his chest. "Yeah, I hope we're not too late for the others."

The automated program teleports Rex back to the main mainframe. He thinks of the remaining three trains as he heads his way down to the second floor. Just as he touches the second floor he's startled as one of the trains zooms by under him, making a loud sound as it passes by. He looks at the train and gasps, noticing where it's headed.

""_Rex!""_ Kaden cries as he too saw that through his PET. _""That train is gonna crash with that other incoming one!""_

"I know! I'm on it!" Rex dashes down the path toward the train, hoping that he would get there in time. He spots a lever up ahead, now all he hopes is that the trains haven't already passed the alternate route. He looks down at the train and then at the path he has to run to get to the lever. He won't make in time; at least, not on foot. Rex spreads his wings and takes flight, flying over the gaps between paths and cutting some precious seconds off of his travel distance.

""_Rex, hurry!""_ Kaden cries desperately.

Everything seemed to happen in slow motion, but Rex manages to get to the lever first. He lets himself drop and grabs onto the lever as he drops, pulling it down with his weight as he falls. Whether it was a close-call or just in time is unsure to the Navi, but when he gets up after the fall one of the trains takes the alternate route, avoiding a collision. Rex sighs in relief as he leans onto the railing, but this time of relaxation was short-lived as he realized the alternate path leads to a dead-end and he has to stop the train immediately anyway. With a grunt he dashes down the path and down the one above the alternate track route. He catches up to the train and jumps down to it, teleporting to its mainframe in a second.

Rex lands on his feet in the train's mainframe. To his surprise this place looks like a battle broke out, a lot of the columns are damaged and stray data can be seen floating about. "Looks like something came down here." Rex points out.

""_Hm, I don't like this.""_ Kaden admits. _""Be careful, Rex.""_

Rex starts running forward to the train's brake switch. He's uncomfortable at the sight of stray data and damaged columns, believing whatever did all of this is still around. He finds the brake switch ahead, but another thing caught his attention. Unlike the others, no virus came out of it to attack him. It's as if the virus that was in here abandoned its post to go after something else.

""_Rex? What's wrong? Pull the switch.""_

Rex looks around. "Something's not right…I feel something, but I can't see anything."

""_Is it that important?""_

Rex nods. "Yeah, whatever I'm feeling it's quite powerful." Suddenly a huge explosion is heard, and a figure is seeing flying toward him. Startled, Rex jumps out of the way as the figure flies toward his direction and slams down where he was standing just a millisecond ago.

""_Rex! You OK?""_

Rex shakes his head and looks over his shoulder to what landed. It was a Navi, an orange one, quite beaten up and seriously damaged. Rex gasps and turns around, recognizing who this is.

"Hey! That's Cera!" Kaden points out as he closes his PET to his face. "What happened to her?"

Rex runs to Cera's side, kneeling down next to her and gently shaking her, examining her pulse and data structure. "She's alive, but pretty hurt."

"Don't touch me, Sharptooth!" Cera hisses as she slaps Rex's hand away. "Touch me again and you're as good as deleted!"

Rex rolls his eyes. "Well, excuuuuuse me, princess…"

Cera rubs her head and growls under her breath. "I must've lost contact with Malory! Stupid runaway train and its curves!" She looks up to glare at Rex, ready to say something to him but something in the sky gets her attention. She gasps, "Look out!"

Rex quickly looks up after the warning, spotting a blur approaching them at a high speed! With a scream Rex grabs Cera and jumps out of there, evading the approaching attacker and saving Cera. He lands on one knee and looks over his shoulders as he gently sets Cera down. The attacker jumps out from the smoke screen it created from the landing and stands on all four in front of Rex.

"A…An Alimon?" Rex gasps.

The Alimon takes a step forward. "What do we have here…A Sharptooth, saving a Leaf-Eater's life?"

Rex slowly stands up and faces the Alimon. "Who are you? Don't tell me you're the Navi behind all of this."

"Me? Behind all of this?" The Alimon couldn't help but chuckle at Rex's ignorance. "Don't be an idiot. The one responsible for all of this is the one you just saved."

Rex blinks and looks down at Cera who's at the moment glaring angrily at the Alimon as she slowly tries to get up despite her wounds. Rex shakes his head. Impossible, he thought. This guy…Err, female is just trying to frame another for this. Rex's eyes narrow and he turns back to the Alimon.

"Of course, all Leaf-Eaters are the same." The Alimon continues. "Heartless creatures, all of them. You turn their backs on them and they'll betray you, destroying you and cause disasters. Wreaking havoc around the net, they all disgust me…" Her eyes narrow even more, intimidating Rex. "And that Navi behind you…She fuels me with a lot of hatred…Her attitude…Just like that one who…"

"Huh?" Rex tilts his head in confusion. Just what is this Navi on? Leaf-Eater Generation Navis are the good Navis; companions of humans and the ones who contribute for the Network Age to prosper; the lovable and gentle Navis who share a bond with their Net Ops and help them when in need. What is she…?

"What are you talking about?" Kaden inquires through his PET. "The Leaf-Eater Navis are the good guys. How can you say they're the evil ones responsible for disasters on the net?"

""_If that's so, then how is your Navi a Sharptooth type?""_ An unknown female voice inquires; the Alimon's Net Op.

Kaden stammers as he scratches his head, trying to come up with a comeback for that one. Unfortunately she caught him in a corner; he can't exactly say he couldn't afford a Leaf-Eater Navi, which would contradict his ownage of Rex in her eyes.

The Alimon takes another step forward, starting to growl. "When a disaster in the net emerges, it's always up to the Officials to take care of the crime. The Leaf-Eaters run to safety while they risk their lives. Tell me, how can we be sure a Leaf-Eater itself didn't start the crime?"

"As if the viruses aren't proof enough!" Rex hisses.

"Viruses are everywhere, what's not to stop Leaf-Eaters to learn to control them?" The Alimon's growl gets louder as her hatred to Leaf-Eaters become even more apparent. "The perfect disguise for them…All of them…"

""_Enough wasting our time, Sharptooth."" _The Alimon's Net Op speaks. _""Stand aside and let us do our job or be deleted as well.""_

Rex growls and changes his hand into his buster cannon and aims it at the Alimon, his eyes glaring. "Forget it! The only way you're getting to her is by first going through me!"

Cera, who's on one knee already, looks up at Rex with an eyebrow arched. This Sharptooth, who came out of nowhere at the most suspicious moment, is standing up against one of his own to save her hide? That's impossible in her thoughts, all Sharptooth are the same; vicious, cold-blooded, heartless, hell-bent on destroying the Leaf-Eaters. The Alimon's views on Leaf-Eaters could jump down a ditch for all she cares, but her views on the Sharptooth Generation are justified and entirely correct…Right?

""_Hmph, consider yourself a traitor to us."" _The Alimon's Net Op announces.

"Hah, we're not afraid of you!" Kaden cries out as he gets ready with his Battle Chips. "Let's rock, Rex! Battle routine, set!"

"Execute!" Rex finishes.

"Prepare for deletion!" The Alimon announces as she charges.

* * *

"Haaaa!" Littlefoot cries as he drops from a high jump, his CyberSword arm held up high as he brings it down on his opponent, Drone. The Deinonychus holds out his CyberClaws and clashes Littlefoot's sword with his claws, sparks flying from the collision between the two cybernetic energy-made weapons. Littlefoot and Drone both jump for distance before charging again, holding their Cyber weapons back for another swing.

"Let's show him what we can do, Littlefoot!" Jason announces as he takes out a Battle Chip. "MiniBomb, code L! Battle Chip in!" He whirls it in his hand so the chip's reader faces away from his wrists and slots it into his PET. "Download!"

A mini bomb forms in Littlefoot's free hand and chucks it at Drone. The Deinonychus couldn't help but smirk, this is pathetic! He swings his CyberClaws at the bomb, cutting it in half, the two pieces flying to his sides as they blow up. However the joke was on him as the smoke of the explosion was big and clouded his vision, disorienting him. He snarls as his vision got blocked and how he got tricked by a kid. This was their strategy. Drone stops his charge but takes a hard slash to his chest, knocking him back and down to the ground as very damaging slash wound resides on his chest, static emitting from the wound. "Graaah! Lucky shot, punk!" Drone shouts in frustration.

"Luck had nothing to do with it." Littlefoot grins as he turns to face Drone as the smoke clears, the CyberSword still intact on his arm. "With Jason on my side, you can't win."

"Oh shut it, you're making me sick with that kind of talk!" Netra says in disgust as he's sitting on a rotatable chair in a building somewhere in the train station. Apparently he's not showing any signs of fear of getting caught. "Drone, break his teeth out!" Netra takes out a chip and slots it in: a Club Tail chip.

Drone gets up and looks at his tail, the chip's effect taking place as a light-blue data cube forms around the tip of his tail. When it disappears, a massive bony club is now present at the tip of his tail. With a grin Drone smashes his new tail on the ground, cracking the ground.

"Uh-oh," Littlefoot mutters as he takes a step back. "Now he has a Spiketail's tail."

Drone charges and swings his CyberClaws at Littlefoot, who jumps aside to dodge it. But the new tail isn't for decoration. Just as Drone passes him he swings his tail, the club on the tip of his tail smacking hard against Littlefoot's face and knocking him down hard. "Gaagh!"

"Littlefoot!" Jason cries as Littlefoot's head in the Limb Damage Meter flashes; still green.

Littlefoot rubs his cheek with a groan as he sits up, that strike could've cracked anybody's skull if done in the real world. He gets up and screams as he spots Drone already coming at him with his claws. He ducks to dodge a slash and swings his CyberSword at Drone's waist, but the Deinonychus Navi jumps over him and once again uses his tail to smack Littlefoot right in the head.

Jason closes his eyes from the strike his Navi just suffered. "Ooohh…That's gotta hurt…" He opens his eyes and notices Littlefoot's head area in the damage meter just went to yellow. He has to do something about that tail. He looks at his chips, catching one he loves using. "Alright Littlefoot, heads up!" He calls out as he slots in the chip.

Littlefoot slowly gets up and rubs his head. He opens his eyes and notices a shadow over him. With a blink he looks up and screams, seeing Drone dropping to slam his club tail right on him.

"Heh, he's toast." Netra smirks as he kicks back and drinks a soda he had with him.

He throws himself aside and rolls out of the way, Drone's strong tail slamming hard on the ground.

And with quite an unsuspecting surprise, the moment his tail struck the ground, he blows up.

Netra spits out every single drop of soda he had in his mouth as the explosion rings out from his PET. "What the heck? How did that happened?"

Littlefoot couldn't help but smile. Jason used a Mine chip and planted it right underneath him so Drone would land right on that one! Drone's scream of pain as he's blown up into the air is Littlefoot's cue. He gets up and jumps at Drone, cutting Drone's club-tailed tail clean off with a swing of his CyberSword, the dismembered tail disintegrating into particles of data.

"Don't let up! TankCannon1, code V! Battle Chip in!" He whirls the Battle Chip's reader to face the PET and slots it in. "Download!"

Littlefoot's CyberSword disappears and turns into a buster, although this buster is much more different than the others. This cannon is much longer and bulkier than the others and colored green. Littlefoot moves the giant cannon toward Drone and fires. A huge bang booms as a gigantic shot erupts from the giant cannon's muzzle, exploding in a huge puff of smoke. The shot strikes Drone head-on, exploding in a huge and painful explosion.

"Graaaaaahhh!" Drone screams in agony as the shot engulfs his body and explodes him away, crashing into a column and breaking through it and crashing through three others before finally hitting solid ground and creating a huge crater, millions of particle of data flowing up into the sky and floating about from the destroyed sections of the column and ground.

"Aagh!" Littlefoot slams hard on his back on the ground, the shot's recoil knocking him down from the air. He turns over and gets up as the buster's muzzle smokes before turning back to his hand, such a powerful shot is a one-time deal per chip recharge.

"Great job, Littlefoot!" Jason congratulates his Navi. "That guy's toast!"

Littlefoot slightly turns around upon hearing someone running up to him. He smiles as he sees Ducky run up to him with a smile. "Littlefoot! You did it! Yup yup yup! You beat that mean ol' Sharptooth!"

Littlefoot giggles. But when it looked like he could put his guard down a total of three screeches break the silence in the air. Littlefoot freezes in place and suddenly screams in agony. Ducky stopped and screamed as three Velociraptor viruses leaped out of nowhere and sank their teeth into Littlefoot's legs and arm, immobilizing him.

"Littlefoot!" Jason gasps.

Littlefoot screams in agony as the viruses' razor sharp teeth grind into his skin, static and blue sparks emitting from the wounds as they grind deeper. Ducky shivers in fright but gathers her courage. She runs up to the suffering Navi and swats and punches at the viruses. "Stop! Let my friend go!"

"Hahahahahah." Netra manages to laugh; a laugh which scares Ducky. "I guess you amateur haven't heard of the FastRunner Lunge chip, huh?"

"Fast…Runner?" Ducky slowly repeats. She has already had a fear to these fast running viruses. She gasps and looks up at Littlefoot as he once again screams in agony and slowly falls onto one knee, the Velociraptor viruses still sinking their teeth into Littlefoot's limbs while making a purring-like sound as they have their sickening pleasure of shredding this Navi apart.

"Littlefoot!" Jason cries out. He looks at his chips, trying to think of a strategy; four Mini-Bomb chips, one AreaSteal, AirShoes, Vulcan1, MachGun1 and a WideSword.

Netra grins as he leans back on his seat and takes out a chip, slotting it in. "I know you're trashed, but come out and waste that Navi."

Drone weakly picks himself up from the rubble he's in, static emitting from him as he's heavily damaged, his crest cracked and a gash on his shoulder where particles of data is rising out of. He snarls as he clutches his shoulder, "Oh with pleasure! This punk is getting on my nerves!"

Jason's eyes narrow upon seeing Drone charge up to Littlefoot again. "Ducky, step back! I'm gonna blow him free!" He holds out his remaining four Mini-Bomb chips inbetween his fingers. "Mini-Bomb combo! Battle Chips in!" He tilts his hand and jams one chip into the PET and does the same with the other three in quick unison. "Download!"

Ducky looks above her and notices four balls materializing and immediately she steps back and flees from the area. These balls take shape and reveal themselves to be the Mini-Bombs. These explosive critters drop and explode on contact to the viruses, exploding dangerously near Littlefoot but accurate enough to not scratch him and strike the viruses. These viruses screech as they let go of the Navi before breaking into particles and meet their deletion. Littlefoot gasps in relief and drops onto his hands and knees, relieved to be out of such a painful bind. But Drone is still headed his way!

"AreaSteal, code S! WideSword, code S!" Jason announces as he holds out the two chips. "Battle Chip in!" He whirls them about and jams them both into his PET. "Download!"

Drone roars as he brings out his claws and sends them down upon reaching the Longneck, but to his dismay the Navi disappears and he jams his claws into the ground.

"No way!" Drone and Netra screams in frustration, unable to believe this. Drone viciously slashes his claws out of the ground and snarls, his head turning this way and that trying to locate the Navi. His eyes settle on the DuckBill Navi with a snarl. "Forget the Longneck! I'm tearing this DuckBill apart!"

Ducky gasps and backs away as the Deinonychus Navi slowly stalks toward her, his claws ready for the clawing. "No, stay back!" Ducky pleads as she backs away. Without Sally, she doesn't have any means to defend herself.

"Shut it, twerp!" Drone hisses as he flexes his claws, ready to delete. "I'm gonna shut that beak of yours permanently!" Drone rears his claws back with a roar for the kill. Time seemed to have slowed down for Ducky when the Deinonychus Navi reared his claws back to delete her, she feared this was it for her and she would never see Sally again. But she suddenly remembered Littlefoot is still out there. And then it happened…

"Ha-yah!"

Drone froze in his tracks as his eyes widen, his mouth hanging open to scream, but no voice could come out of it. Ducky's eyes widen as a WideSword is sticking out of Drone's stomach. Littlefoot has reappeared behind Drone and impaled his WideSword through Drone's back, the tip coming out through his stomach.

"Gah! No waaaaaayyyy!" Netra screams through his PET.

Jason couldn't help but smirk when he heard that scream through his PET. "Way."

Drone uttered one gasp before his strength left him. His HP is done and he suffered too much damage. He disintegrates into particles of data and beams out of there. He has jacked out of the system and back into his PET.

* * *

Rex aims and shoots with his buster cannon as he jumps through the air, trying to hit the speedy Alimon from down below. The battle started with the Alimon trying to ram him down with her tackles while Rex kept his distance with his buster cannon.

"Take this!" Rex shouts as he keeps on shooting with his buster.

The Alimon though kept dodging the shots, not missing a beat and showing little effort to jump out of the way. "Hmph, how dull…"

"Agh! We'll show you!" Kaden grits his teeth as he takes out a Battle Chip. "Mini-Bomb, code B! Battle Chip in!" He holds it up in the air and jams it down into his PET. "Download!"

A Mini-Bomb forms in Rex's free hand and chucks it at the Alimon, who simply jumps to the side and dodges the bomb. However at the moment she dodged a shot came by and got her right on her shoulder, pushing her back with little damage.

"Got her!" Rex cries triumphantly despite the shot giving little to no effect on her.

Kaden is very into the battle as well. He has never gotten up against a Navi like this one, and to be frank it's quite exciting. However, this sudden challenge made him forget about the train until he caught a glimpse of the train's brake system. "Uh-oh!" He gasps. "Rex! The train! We forgot about the train!"

"Huh?" Rex blinks, but then he suddenly remembers. "Oh snap! You're right!" He turns his back on the Alimon and runs to the system, but before he even got close the Alimon caught up and tackled him down with tremendous force. "Aargh!"

"Hey!" Kaden barks. "What's your problem? We're trying to save the trains here!"

"Hmph, that's our job." The Alimon's Net Op informs them. She calmly taps a button on her PET and takes a view of the area, immediately spotting the brake system. "Ah, I see. So the Leaf-Eater was aiming to destroy this…" She told to himself as she closes her eyes. "Grayscale, stop the train."

Grayscale nods and jumps up to the brake system, landing right onto the switch and pushing it down with her weight. Soon enough the humming sound in the mainframe slowly dies down as the train in the real world slowly comes to a stop.

Rex, who was slowly getting up after being knocked down, looks up as the hum dies down. He sighs in relief and sheds a smile. "Phew, that's four down, eh Kaden?"

"Rex, look out!" Kaden barks.

Rex gasps and rolls out of the way as an axe-like weapon slams down into the ground he was lying on. Grayscale just tried again with her Dagger Tail attack to smite Rex. The Sharptooth growls as he gets up, glaring at the Alimon as he gathers his courage and strength. "Why do you insist on fighting us? All we're trying to do is help!"

The Alimon hisses at the Sharptooth. "You stay out of this, kid! You may have interfered before but I'll let you off this time." With a glare she turns to Cera, who was on her hands and knees recovering from the punishment she had earlier. "As for you…" She fully turns to her, her eyes on fire.

"You are hereby sentence to deletion!" Grayscale's Net Op takes out a HornThrust chip and slots it in.

Grayscale roars as the horns on her head are engulfed in a light-blue glow, the length of her horns increasing as they curve toward the opposite direction, perfect to charge and skewer her victims. The chip also has another effect. With another roar Grayscale charges, her charging speed and power increased just for this chance to impale and delete Cera.

"No, stop!" Rex pleads as he holds out a hand to Grayscale.

"Rex! Don't give up!" Kaden cries out as he takes out two chips. "AreaSteal, code S! ShinyWall, code S! Battle Chips in!" He holds them up in the air and jams them both into his PET. "Download!"

Rex has to move fast. The AreaSteal takes effect and he disappears. Just when Cera stood up to defend herself Rex reappears in front of her. This startled her, again the question arising of why a Sharptooth would bother to put his life on the line for her. "Re-Rex?" She stammers, confused.

Rex didn't answer however. He holds out his arms as the ShinyWall chip takes effect and a wall of ice erupts in front of him, standing between them and Grayscale. But despite this the Alimon didn't stop. She just continues until her horns rammed into the wall and break thru…

* * *

"No! I lost my PET!"

Malory immediately sat up upon noticing her PET wasn't in her hand anymore. It must've slipped out of her grasp when the train took the sudden turn to the right, barely avoiding a collision with another. She jerks her head back and forth, but unsuccessful in finding her PET. She looks down at Stephen, who's lying on her lap which was his landing point when they all got jerked off their feet from the turn.

"Stephen, get off!" She hollers as she shoves him off. She turns over onto her hands and knees and searches the ground around her, trying to find her PET. "Shoot! I can't find it!"

Sally, who fell in-between the seat row behind the gang, slowly got up to her feet, rubbing her shoulder. "Ow…What? Can't find what?"

"My PET!" Sally hollers. "I dropped it and now I can't find it!"

"What? What do you mean you can't find it?" Silus panics. "Cera needs you and it's lost?"

Malory shoots a glare at Silus. "Well it wouldn't be lost if you guys help me find it!"

The gang looks at each other and nods. While this cabin isn't too big there are places where a PET can slide under and can be easily missed. They got to find it fast and get back on Cera before that Alimon deletes her. "OK. I'll check the back row." Sally informs. "Stephen, check the right front row. Silus can take the middle rows."

They all immediately scrambled to their designated areas. Sally searched the back area of the cabin while Stephen went down on all fours looking under the front row seats to try to find the lost PET. Silus was just about to check his row when the runaway train suddenly took a dive down, slightly making the gang feel weightless before running on ground level again.

Upon noticing this, Malory got up on her knees addressing to the others. "What the heck was that?"

Silus had a bad feeling about this. He looks out the window realizing the train descended from the elevated rails and down to ground level. This confused Silus. The train doesn't run on ground-level rails, only when…That's when it hit them. The turn the train took was just the beginning of their worries; this train is headed to one of the train's storage warehouses! Those rails lead to dead-ends, which means…

"Yikes!" Silus yelps. He quickly drops down to the floor and desperately looks under the seats.

"What? What?" Malory cries.

"No time! Just hurry up and find your PET!" Silus informs desperately.

Sally is confused. "What? Why?"

Stephen, being the curious one of the group, looks out the window on his side. He too notices the train running on ground level. And, to his dismay, he can see from his side just where the train is going. Sometime up ahead the train is going to turn right, and it's going to head to those warehouses he sees where they store some of the train equipment and where they keep the trains for maintenance. "Aaaaahh!" He screams before turning to the group. "Dead-end up ahead!"

"What?" The girls cry out at the same time. Now they _have_ to find Malory's PET. Cera is their only hope to stop the train. Spike is still too hurt to fight the Alimon, and Petrie doesn't sound much like he's willing to face a deadly Sharptooth.

From his PET Silus could hear Petrie freaking out. _""Aaaah! Dead-end no good! Silus and others must hurry!""_

"We're trying!" Silus responds to his Navi as he keeps searching. He reaches under one of the chairs and feels around, feeling something underneath a blind spot. He smiles and grabs the thing, pulling it out. "Yes!" He jumps up to his seat and holds the item up in the air. "I found i-Waaah!"

The train took the right turn they were dreading, knocking Silus against the wall and Stephen off his feet and unto the floor again. Now it's just a simple run forward and they're going to crash into a dead-end, probably taking their lives away in the accident. The knock against the wall made Silus drop the lost PET, falling back onto the ground. It seemed hopeless to them until two seconds later when the train started to slowly lose speed and coming to a stop, just seconds away from zooming through the warehouse and into the dead-end.

Stephen rolled onto his stomach and rubs his aching back. "Nnngh…Man oh man…What happened now?"

Sally, who was holding onto the seats tightly, slowly opened her eyes as she looks out the window. "We…Stopped?"

Malory is just as confused as they are. She looks under the seats and spots her PET where it landed. Immediately she grabs it, extends the cable as she gets up and plugs it into the computer terminal, regaining her contact and visual with Cera. "Cera? Are you there?"

A couple of seconds of static later, a clear visual of the area came into her PET's screen. Suspense began to build as the gang huddled around Malory to look into the PET, hoping and praying Cera was still there. They all sighed in relief when they got a visual of Cera, but the next thing they saw made them all gasp in unison.

The Alimon was still there, and she just had a victim. But it wasn't Cera the victim. It was someone else…Sort of.

Cera is standing there, a look of disbelief on her face. In front of her stands her savior, Rex. The Navi used a ShinyWall chip to make a wall of ice between him and Grayscale. She tried to skewer Cera with her longer horns from the HornThrust chip, but all she managed to accomplish was running into Rex's ShinyWall. Her horns managed to break through, but the ShinyWall stood firm and stopped Grayscale from charging any further in. The wall needed Rex's support to keep from breaking down; he needed his hands placed firmly on the wall. One horn managed to touch Rex, skinning and slightly impaling through his side.

Cera stands there; slightly trembling as her eyes are fixed on Rex's impaled side, particles of data emitting from the wound. "…W-Why…?" Cera stutters as she slowly looks up at Rex.

Kaden, who is watching this through his PET, couldn't help but answer for her. "Cera, don't you see? Rex is your friend. He wants to help you, not chase after you with an everlasting appetite to tear you apart."

"Hm, interesting…" Grayscale's Net Op mutters as she watches through her PET. "A Sharptooth being friends with such vile Navis…"

"Rex." Kaden smirks as he holds out a chip. "Let's show that Alimon we mean business in our friendship with Leaf-Eaters!"

Rex, with a grunt of pain from the wound, nods with a slight smile. "Yeah. We'll show her Leaf-Eaters are not evil!"

Grayscale, still holding her position with one of her horns still skewered in Rex's side, dangerously narrows her eyes. "Abominations of the Network! How can you defend such corrupt pieces of trash!"

"Easy! Like this!" Kaden smirks as he holds up the chip he was holding. "MegaFist, code B! Battle Chip in!" He immediately jams it into his PET. "Download!"

Rex takes one hand off the wall and holds it back as it transforms into a giant fist. "Grrraaaaahh!" He screams as he quickly pulls the punch in and toward the wall and straight onto Grayscale. Both she and her Net Op were taken by surprise as the wall shatters and the giant fist connects against Grayscale's skull, delivering huge damage as the Alimon is flung back and into the air, her horn pulled out of Rex's side as the Alimon flies back. She flies pretty far back and slams hard onto the ground, bouncing once as she flips onto her stomach and skidding along. She slightly opens her eyes in a dangerous glare as a crack is formed on her helmet and gradually gets bigger, some pieces chipping off in the process.

Kaden's eyes are now in a glare as he's focused, almost as if he was one with Rex. "And now…" He starts as he takes out his two Cannon chips along with his FireWater chip, ready to pull a combo with the cannons and finishing it off with the FireWater. He was about to slot in the cannons when the sound of two loud screeches break the silence in the air. Kaden blinks. "Huh? That couldn't have been…"

Grayscale's Net Op also heard the screeches from the control room she's in. She looks outside of the window next to her to see one of the runaway trains stopping just a few feet from where the control room is. "The trains stopped…" She told herself. She then hears a beep coming from her PET, alerting her of two new emails. One informed her of the trains stopping. The other told her about finding the one responsible and the location…

She closes the windows on her PET. "Grayscale, we're done here."

"Hm?" Grayscale hums as she picks herself up, some pieces of her helmet fall off as she does so. "What about the Leaf-Eater?"

"Leave it be." Her Net Op replies. "Jack out."

Grayscale nods. "Understood." She glares at Cera and Rex. "We'll meet again…" And with that, she disintegrates into a purple beam and jacks out.

"Stop! Come back here!" Cera cries as she starts to run to the spot where Grayscale once stood. She growls under her breath as she looks up where Grayscale jacked out.

* * *

"Aarrgh! No way!" Netra was furious. He thought he had it all planned out. He thought he took care of every detail of the plan. He thought no one could stop an entire station of runaway trains in time. But somehow they did. All because of a stupid Longneck and DuckBill came along and bested his Sharptooth Navi.

He flung the chair away; he slammed his fists on the machine and cursed every name in the book. Netra may be a cool, ridiculous teenager but when he faces defeat he takes it hard. He looks into his PET, which is still connected to the machine, and watches as the Longneck and DuckBill celebrate their victory. How could they have defeated his Navi. A Sharptooth! How could he have lost to Leaf-Eaters?

"No! No!" He screams in frustration as those two find the main control in the system, which makes all of the trains in the station stop. It's all over. And his boss will not be happy about this. And to make it worse, the Sharptooth Navi he was ordered to find hasn't shown its face!

""_We did it, Littlefoot! Yup yup yup!""_ Netra overheard the DuckBill cheer through his PET. How he would love to shut that stupid Navi…

""_We sure did!""_ The Longneck replies to the DuckBill. _""Now let's go find the others! I'm sure Sally will be happy to see you in one piece.""_

""_Oh yes! I am glad that they are going to be OK! Thanks to you and Rex!""_

Rex? Netra blinked at the name. That's kind of a strange name for a Leaf-Eater Navi. It sounds more like a Sharptooth-oriented name. That's when it hit him. The Sharptooth Navi his boss told him about. Jackpot, he thought. With a smile he unplugged his PET and ran off, fleeing from the scene…

* * *

The whole ordeal lasted hours. The sun was already high in the sky and ready to take its plunge for the evening.

As Kaden descended a flight of stairs he taps away at buttons on his PET. The upper left corner of his PET says 3:45PM, but he felt that the whole incident lasted days. It was so intense it felt like time was moving five times faster.

"What a day…" Kaden comments as he stops just after going down the stairs and looks back at the station, recapping everything they went through to stop the trains. He managed to stop most of them until Jason and Littlefoot found the main switch and turn them all off, saving countless lives from the remaining two.

""_You can say that again…""_ His Navi adds.

Kaden turns back to his PET. "You're all right?"

Inside the PET Rex is slightly clutching the wound on his side. He's slowly recovering while inside the PET as particles of data are slowly covering up the wound and repairing it. He still has some injuries here and there from his battle against Grayscale, but nothing a few hours in the PET won't heal. _""I'm hanging on. We showed that Alimon, huh?""_

Kaden chuckles and nods. "You bet we did! Although too bad she left before we could really show her just how wrong she was about the Leaf-Eaters."

Rex nods. _""Yeah, I wonder what happened to her that would make her and her Net Op believe that the Leaf-Eaters are evil…""_

Kaden shrugs and looks up ahead. Jason emailed him about figuring out the train in which their friends were and went up ahead to the train. The train was close by one of the station's warehouses, where the workers of the station managed to get there after the incident and notify the others about their whereabouts. The gang chose Jason and Kaden for the workers to notify and give them permission to get to the train to help them out.

The workers stand by the train's doors, aiding the passengers in getting out of the train. Silus and Stephen were already out of the train when the workers helped Sally in getting out. She brought up her eyes and smiled as she saw Kaden and Jason waiting for them. With a big smile she ran up to them. "Kaden! Jason!"

The two boys smiled upon seeing them, happy to see they're all right. Sally ran up to them and quickly hugs them, smothering them both. "Jason! Kaden! I'm so glad to see you both!"

"Agh! Sally!" Jason cringes as he gets crushed. "You're crushing us…!"

"Choking! Not breathing!" Kaden complains.

Sally lets them both go, smiling from ear to ear as some tears start to form in her eyes. "I knew you two would come and save us…I was so scared…"

Jason blushes as he scratches the back of his head. "Heheh, well we couldn't just stand around knowing you guys were in trouble."

Kaden grins. "Hahah yeah. Besides, Jason bolted out of the door when he heard you were in dang-Ack! Hey!" He was suddenly grabbed in a headlock by Jason for teasing him about the supposed interest between Jason and Sally.

"Don't you even dare finishing that sentence, punk!" Jason playfully threatens as he noogies his childhood friend.

"Hahahahah!" Rex and Littlefoot laugh from inside their PETs. To them their PETs are connected as one huge area, a benefit PETs gain from being close to other PETs that are in their Friend List. This way Navi friends can spend time together just like their Net Ops do.

"Littlefoot!"

Littlefoot and Rex turn around, spotting Ducky, Petrie and Spike running up to them. Littlefoot laughs with a grin as they run up to him and almost tackle him down to the ground. "Hahah! Guys!" The gang happily grabs hands and hop around in circles, their laughter filling the rather silent area.

"Hahahah!" Rex laughs as he sees the gang together again. But upon another look he stops laughing, noticing they're one short. He turns around and is startled to find Cera standing there. This event makes the gang stop their laughing, they too noticing how their ThreeHorn friend is looking at the Sharptooth.

Cera folds her arms with an 'hmph', an action which made Rex flinch. But along came the unthinkable. Cera lightens up and sheds a smile as she closes her eyes. "All right, you got my respects."

"What? Really?" Rex beams upon hearing that.

Cera opens her eyes. "Well you did defend me from that Alimon and took the blow for me. So yeah, I guess I can trust you."

"Ahah!" Rex grins. After such a cold beginning with her the ThreeHorn opened up and she's now willing to trust him. Rex smiles warmly upon being fully accepted into the group. "Thanks, Cera!"

Kaden watches with a smile through the PET. He couldn't be any happier for his Navi. His first day out in the world, first time in a NetBattle, first time against a real net crime and socializing with other Net Navis, everything went perfect. It was a rocky start for the both of them, but they managed to come out on top in the end. And the day isn't over yet.

Kaden catches something in the corner of his eyes and looks up from his PET, spotting someone standing on top of one of the upper ledges of the train station not too far ahead, the sun hitting the figure perfectly to have a good look of who it is. The figure is wearing a dark blue suit with a dark blue hat, its black hair swaying in the wind. Despite having a good look of this person from afar Kaden doesn't recognize who it is.

The person turns out to be a female with dark brown eyes and a scar across her face and down between her eyes and ending at her jaw. She slowly turns away and walks away, off to her next assignment.

""_Shouldn't you go arrest him?""_ A female voice asked. _""After all you saw him coming out from one of the station's electronic warehouses.""_

The female takes out her purple PET and looks at her Navi. "I'll let it slide. After all, he was mildly responsible for stopping the trains." She stops and presses a few buttons on her PET, going through some work. "Anything to report from the mainframe where the incident originated?"

""_Nothing.""_ Her Navi responded. _""The perpetrator made a clean getaway. Although we found traces of his data and managed to identify him. Guess who.""_

The files open up in her PET. "Netra and Drone. Those two again." She couldn't help but smirk with a shake of her head. "Make sure the Rock Rangers Unit gets this notification, Grayscale."

Her Navi, Grayscale, nods. _""Understood. And I believe it's best for you to head back as well, Kiraa?""_

The female, Kiraa, nods and puts away her PET. She looks back, her thoughts going back to the kid who owned the Sharptooth Navi. "You better come to your senses before those Leaf-Eaters betray you too…They're nothing but corrupted waste of Navis…"

* * *

"On the next chapter of Land Before Time: Battle Network!"  
""_Hey Kaden, have you heard the news?""_  
"Erm, what is it, Rex?"  
""_Tomorrow's the grand opening of the Great Valley Square!""_  
"Oh, that's right! We better go check it out with the others tomorrow!"  
""_Hey, did you just hear a very loud roar just now?""_  
"Aaah! The components in the real world are going crazy!"

"Next time on Land Before Time: Battle Network: 'Internet calamity! The first arc!'"  
"Cheer us on!"


	8. Internet Calamity! The first arc!

Another chapter up. Just a disclaimer, Kiraa and Grayscale belong to DarkHououmon.

Master Doppler belongs to Rock Raider.

* * *

It's been hours since the train station incident. The investigation reports have been issued and filed to the Garden City Net-Police Department for further analysis and investigation. Many were quick to point their fingers to the net mafia, HTTP, as the culprits of this incident. They couldn't be any further from the truth...

On a remote island off the shorts of the Garden City Beach, hidden in the woods on the island resides a huge three-story building. HTTP's headquarters.

On the top floor resides the office of the HTTP leader. He sits on his rotatable seat facing out the room's window toward the woods where off in the distance he can faintly see the continent where Garden City resides. He has plans for the continent and the city, big plans. But to bring his plans into motion, he needs some things...

"So you tell me this Sharptooth Navi in the city is named Rex." The leader speaks as behind him stands the teenager, Netra; no doubt reporting him after his doings in the train station. "Was he the one who put a stop to your 'fun'?"

Netra shakes his head. "Nah, dude. It was..." He suddenly stops, unwilling to continue. If his leader hears he was defeated by a mere Leaf Eater, he would snap as he would always do.

But the leader was starting to get impatient with Netra's pause. He grips the handles of his seat rather tightly, already expecting the defeat coming from a Leaf Eater. He settles down though, resting back against his seat. "No matter, you already gained some information to ensure your life for now."

What the leader said made Netra more at ease, their leader is never one to take failure lightly. He'd usually eliminate them immediately if they failed some important duty or crime. But this time Netra was spared, at least for now like the leader said.

"This NetNavi intrigues me, however." The leader comments as he rests his elbows on the seat's handles and places his fingers together, contemplating as he views the scenery in front of him beyond his window. "According to the reports this Navi can use data of the battle chip CyberClaw at will. This along with the fact he's a Sharptooth Generation in public use. I wonder…"

"Is he of that importance?"

The HTTP leader recognizes such voice. It is none other than their 'professor', the lead scientist of HTTP. The scientist steps into the room and walks past Netra, stopping in front of the leader. The scientist wears a white lab coat with a red shirt underneath his coat and a pair of black pants and shoes. He has white hair, a long chin and a large pointed nose. At the top of his lab coat resides a red triangle insignia pointing downward with a green D in the middle.

"Master Doppler…" The leader speaks. "What brings you here?"

The scientist bows in respect. "Apologies but I couldn't help but overhear about this Sharptooth Navi you speak of." He stands up straight and continues. "It is rather curious at how a Sharptooth Navi is out there in public when it is clearly stated specialized Sharptooth Navi are only for Official use."

"So?" Netra speaks out with a shrug. "Maybe the dudes over at SciLab finally grew a spine and decided to allow Sharptooth Navis for public use."

Doppler chuckles. "Idiot, do you have any idea the risk SciLab and Officials would take by doing such a thing? Net-crimes and terrorism would see a devastating increase." He simply shakes his head before continuing. "No, there's something much more to this Sharptooth Navi than simply a test run to trust the public with the Sharptooth Generation. Whoever created this Navi must have something in mind to allow it into the public."

"Hmph, those fools." The leader speaks out. "They didn't learn a thing from last time…"

Doppler, upon hearing what his leader just said, takes a step forward and speaks. "Speaking of that incident, I may have located what you're looking for."

The leader couldn't help but grin evilly upon hearing the news. "Excellent…"

* * *

It's night time but there's still some action yet to be had in Haruko's shop. Not even an exhausting day crime fighting at the train station is going to slow down two certain kids and their Navis.

"AreaSteal, code S! Battle chip in! Download!"

Littlefoot catches the light-blue hide of Rex teleporting behind him, his claws lighted up with his CyberClaw attack ready to slice him up. The Longneck ducks and rolls out of the way as he dodges the devastating claws. This is the first thing Kaden and Jason did after getting back to the shop from the train station, continuing from where they left off before the train incident interrupted their NetBattle.

"Too slow, Kaden!" Jason comments with a smirk as he takes down a battle chip. "Let's show them how it's done, Littlefoot!"

Little nods with a smile. "Yeah."

"Stay sharp, Rex!" Kaden warns with a grin.

Rex nods with a determine glare. "Got it."

"Ugh, they've been at it for hours." Malory comments as she sits on a chair behind the counter, bored out of her mind as she watches the battle from afar. It's true, they've gotten into the shop a couple of hours ago and since then the two best friends have been battling it out non-stop.

Sally giggles from Malory's comment. "You know those two; they know how to get carried away."

"I got to hand it to Kaden, this being his first NetBattles he's been doing pretty well." Stephen comments as he watches the NetBattle along with the others.

Malory rolls her eyes. "Well duh! He's been building all this hype for years! It's about time he lets it all out in a good battle."

"Give him credit, Malory." Silus comments as he puts down his can of coke. "He's holding his own rather well for never NetBattling before. And by the look on your face he even impressed you."

Upon hearing that Malory slightly turns her head away from them, trying to hide that fact. Silus' comment holds water, Malory _and _Cera were impressed at how well executed Kaden and Rex combo'd AreaSteal and ShinyWall to teleport in front of Cera and protect her from that Alimon Navi's horns. "It's not that impressive." She speaks as she tries to hide it.

"What I'm impressed with is that this NetBattle isn't over yet." Malory, Silus, Sally and Stephen turn their heads to the shop's backdoor to see Haruko walking out from it with his things. "It's just about closing time and those two are still at it. My word, they're going to run that simulator down to its roots." He turns his head to Kaden and Jason. "Are you two almost done? I got a shop to close and I want to go home before the sun rises!"

"In a minute!" Kaden and Jason respond at the same time.

"Let's finish this, Rex!" Kaden commands as he watches his Navi from the PET screen.

"I'm all for that!" Rex responds. "Time to bust it out?"

Kaden nods. "Time to bust it out!" He digs into his pocket and takes out the red colored battle chip, FireWater, a giga class chip sent to him along with Rex, courtesy from his dad. "FireWater, code M! Battle chip in!" He holds out the chip in the air and slots it into his PET. "Download!"

Rex grips his fist and holds it out in front of him as it starts to glow a warm red light. He lifts the fist up into the air and slams it down to the ground, cracking the soil and liquid hot magma gushing out from the cracks and exploding into the air, covering the battlefield threatening to take everything in its path to oblivion.

Littlefoot gasps and screams as a wall of magma flows toward his direction. He turns tail and runs from the huge wave as fast as he can, trying to avoid from being burnt to a crisp. One touch of that lava and his hit points will dangerously deplete, forcing him to jack out and lose the battle.

But Jason is one step ahead of everyone. He quickly slots in a battle chip and Littlefoot, upon receiving the chip data, stops his running and turns around, leaping right into the wave of lava and disappearing into it. It would seem Littlefoot just committed some sort of suicide to just jump into the lava wave like that, but to Rex's surprise Littlefoot pops out from the other side and shoots a good charged shot from his buster gun at the Navi, the shot hitting straight into his chest, knocking him back and off his feet.

"Aaargh!" He slams hard on the ground and skids before stopping.

"Rex!" Kaden exclaims upon seeing his Navi getting hurt.

Rex rubs his head and looks around. He just landed on a remote patch of ground, the rest of the battlefield covered in lava. Not good. He looks up and screams in surprise to see Littlefoot falling toward him from high up with his left arm as a sword, no doubt from the a Sword battle chip. Littlefoot intents on landing on Rex with his sword for the finishing blow, which should finish the match. And with Rex under him in this position, it's not going to miss.

But just then, all of a sudden, something happens and the two Navis are suddenly jacked out from the machine and tossed right back into their PETs like a bag tossed into a trash can. It was so unexpected that Rex and Litlefoot slam down stomach first into their PETs, dazed from being suddenly thrown out.

"Hey! What gives?" Jason cries as the NetBattle Simulator machine dies down, its power cut out.

Kaden hears a chuckle to his left and turns around, seeing Malory twirling the machine's power cord in her hand. The impatient girl unplugged the machine from its power source and interrupted the match just like that. And Malory's smirk just ticks Kaden off even more. "Malory…!"

Malory just shrugs as she drops the power cord. "What? It _is _closing time."

Jason sighs. "Aw man, it was so close…"

"Yeah! That wasn't nice, Malory!"

Malory just laughs in response. "You should've thanked me, Kaden! You were about to lose any way!"

Kaden glances at Jason before scratching the back of his head with an embarrassed smirk. He was about to lose, he ran out of chips to protect Rex from that blow. "Yeah well, I could've thought of something to dodge that…" He tries to make an excuse, but failing miserably.

_""Hey, __Kaden__ The first step in becoming a good sport is admitting defeat!"" _Rex blurts out to lecture Kaden about his excuse.

Kaden flinches and looks into his PET at Rex. "Hey! You're supposed to back me up, not go against me!"

Rex just places his hands on his hips while eyeing at his Operator. _""I'm not going to hide an obvious thing like that just to make myself look tough.""_

Kaden just drops his head down in defeat, with his Navi not even backing him up he's just going to get in an even worse situation. The gang couldn't help but laugh at Kaden's little predicament, being shot down like that by his Navi. Haruko, to get everyone's attention, clears his throat rather loudly. "Well, if your NetBattle is over you kids better head on home now, I got to close up shop."

Jason nods as he puts away his PET and battle chips. "Yeah, it's getting late anyway."

Before anyone could get a chance to walk out the door Sally stops them all with an announcement. "Don't forget we're to meet at Garden Area 3 for the grand opening!"

Kaden stops with putting away his battle chips and PET, looking a bit confused. "Uhhh…What grand opening?"

Everyone turn their heads toward Kaden. "Ugh, typical Kaden." Malory comments.

"You don't know about the grand opening?" Haruko inquires.

In the PET at their linked conference page, the NetNavi group are together just like their Operators. "Don't look at me!" Rex blurts out defensively as he holds out his hands to Littlefoot, Spike, Ducky, Petrie and Cera. "I'm new and Kaden hasn't mentioned a thing about it."

Cera sighs as she folds her arms. "I guess I gotta explain it to ya, so listen up! Tomorrow's the grand opening of the Great Valley Square, Garden City's internet city."

"It is going to be a huge and beautiful place for us Navis to hang out, shop and talk to other Navis!" Ducky adds in.

"Not to mention an arena where we can have NetBattles!" Littlefoot adds as he grips his hand into a fist, sounding excited about the arena.

Back in the real world. "Wow! It sounds awesome!" Kaden exclaims as he pumps his fists.

"I can't believe you forgot." Jason comments with an amused look on his face.

"Yeah! It's been mentioned on TV and on the net!" Malory informs with a shame-on-you tone in her voice.

Kaden lowers his head a bit ashamed. He has heard about it a lot, but with the lack of a PET and NetNavi he hasn't paid attention to these kinds of things. "Yeah yeah, I know…"

"Aw give him a break, guys." Silus comments as he walks to the door with Stephen and Sally. "It's not his fault he has a short attention span!"

"Hey!" Kaden snaps from Silus' comment, it's so like Silus to make a joke at someone's expense to cheer up any kind of situation. The comment made the rest of the gang laugh as they all walk through the door, but Kaden wasn't exactly going to stand for this as he runs after them through the door and out to the streets.

Haruko just chuckles from the kids' shenanigans as he picks up his things to close up shop.

* * *

Kaden was getting ticked off. He knew he was a bit off with his daily routines and chores, but he sure wasn't expecting his dad to do something about it at this scale.

Just when he was about to eat dinner it started.

_""__Kaden__! Did you wash your hands?""_

OK, maybe that wasn't so bad. But let's just say it only got worse.

_""__Kaden__! Clean up after yourself! Don't leave your dishes on the washer like that!""_

_""Don't leave your socks on the ground like that!""_

_""Your clothes will get wrinkled if you leave them like that!""_

_""You forgot to brush your teeth!""_

_""Don't throw your towel like that!""_

Needless to say, Kaden couldn't wait to jump into bed and sleep so he wouldn't have to hear another session of Rex nagging him like that for the rest of the night.

_""__Uuuuh__...Kaden__?""_

Scratch that. Even when it's time to sleep Rex is still going to keep at it.

_""Shouldn't you turn off the computer?""_

Kaden peeks his head out from under the covers to the computer desk where the PET is in the PET Customization Center machine recharging its battery. He narrows his eyes and throws the covers over his head again. "It's fine."

_""It's going to increases the electric bill. I think you should just turn it off.""_

Kaden mumbles, he can't believe what he's hearing. "Rex, its fine! The computer goes into hibernation mode to conserve electricity when it's not being used for five minutes! Now go to sleep…"

Rex crosses his arms as he sits on the floor in the PET, looking a bit worried about the Homari residence's electric bill. "Well, if you say so…"

Little do they know that somewhere deep in the net a powerful virus is acting up. It shakes the ground as it moves about, the ground under its giant foot cracking and snaking along the ground. It roars a roar so potent that anything in its range would get damaged just by its sonic wave. Little viruses from all over scramble to avoid this terrible beast as it makes its way across the net. This powerful virus is of the Sharptooth Generation, a rare T-Rex virus. And it's heading toward the Garden City's network.

It moved without rest thorough the night, not bothering to stop for anything. As the citizens of Garden City slept peacefully during the night this ferocious virus beast crept closer and closer to their network. Humans and Navis peacefully sleep, unaware of the danger getting closer to their network and city.

Soon enough the sun rises in the early morning. The birds begin to chirp and the morning rush for work and errands begin. On the net many people have already jacked their Navis in for the highly anticipated grand opening of the Great Valley Square. Many Navis gather around in certain spots to meet up with friends and family to head out to the grand opening together, and as for Kaden and his friends, that is something they are planning to do. But there's always that little problem…

_""__Kaden__…__Kaden__…__Kaden__…Hey! __Kaden __Homari__!""_

Kaden snaps awake from the wake-up call with a jump, falling off his bed and down to the floor.

_""Wake up, lazy bones!__ The sun is up!""_

Kaden has his eyes in a dangerous glare as he slowly pulls the covers off of him. The sun has barely gotten up and Rex is already waking him up? Is his internal clock not set properly or something? Kaden slowly gets up to his knees and up to his computer desk, coming face to face with his PET and his Navi inside, taking note of the time in the upper left corner of his PET screen. "You woke me up at 7AM; on a Sunday…You do know that's a crime in my book…"

Rex scratches his cheek in an apologetic manner. _""Sorry, but we did agree to meet up with the others early today for the Great Valley Square's grand opening.""_

Kaden suddenly remembers and instantly stands up. "Oh yeah! You're right!" He types into his computer to get it online, going past the login screen of his computer and trying to get it online. Rex waits patiently in his PET as Kaden starts on the preparations. To think that soon he'll actually see an actual internet city being opened for the public to use, a place he can hang out with the others and make new friends.

"That's odd…"

Rex frowns at hearing his Operator say that. _""What? What's wrong?""_

Kaden scratches his head as he stares at the error message displaying on his computer screen. "I'm trying to open the link to the net to jack you in, but for some reason I can't get it to connect."

_""Maybe I can give it a shot. Jack me in.""_

"Okay." Kaden plugs out his PET from the machine and extends the jack-in cable before plugging his PET into his computer terminal. Soon after Rex disappears from the PET and transfers into Kaden's computer.

The winged Navi touches down in the computer and looks around, seeing nothing out of the ordinary. He places his hand in front of him and opens a window with a wag of his finger. He then moves both his hands to the side as two keyboards materialize and he starts typing, trying to get the link to the net open from Kaden's computer.

"Any luck?" Kaden asks as he sits in front of his computer, monitoring Rex from his PET.

Rex shakes his head. "No, it's not going through. I'm gonna try routing it manually." He closes the window and dismisses the keyboards before running down the computer's terminal to check out the link himself to try to route it manually. He stops abruptly as he spots the problem, the portal used to create the link is brutally damaged, the ground nearly broken in two and the link has been cut off by a chasm. "Oh no…Bad news, Kaden. The portal is broken…"

Kaden scratches his head as he tries to figure out what happened. "Hm, must be a problem with the network connection."

The theory sounds odd to Rex. As he examines the damage it's no ordinary network problem. It looks as if it's been destroyed from the inside out; from the net into the port. Something's not right…

Kaden sighs as he puts down the PET. "Well I guess we have no other choice but to head out to Jason's house and go with him and Littlefoot." He was about to jack Rex out when his stomach began to grumble, that says it all, he's hungry. "But first…Something to eat!"

Upon hearing this Rex throws his head up. "Kaden! Shouldn't you email Jason first?" But he was a second too late; Kaden had already dashed out of his room and to the kitchen. The Navi sighs as he rubs his forehead; his Operator is quite a handful to keep in check with his necessities.

While Rex is isolated in the safety of the computer, out there in the network a virus is wreaking havoc with each step it takes, literally. This giant T-Rex Sharptooth virus roams the net, searching for prey, anything it can delete. Every step it takes it corrupts part of the Garden Area network, cracking the ground and deleting everything in its paths. Sharptooth Generation viruses, known for their reckless behavior in diving in to cause trouble and attack Leaf Eater Generation Navis, are actually running away from this giant virus. Hordes of viruses run toward the opposite direction looking for safety, ignoring everything that they come across.

Up ahead of the Sharptooth virus a team of Leaf Eater SpikeTail Navis assemble equipped with the most powerful battle chip datas they could weild. M-Cannons, Magnums, TankCannon3s, even mega class battle chip, SuperVulcan. These Navis are very well armed with formidable firepower. Insignias on their chests represent themselves as official Navis from one of SciLab's defense units.

"The unit is in position." An Operator reports as he sits in front of a server typing commands in.

"We're ready to engage whenever you give the word." A female Operator reports as she sits in front of another server in the room.

The man in charge of the defense nods. "Wait for it…"

The Sharptooth virus roars, making the ground shake and breaking it in two as a crack snakes from under the virus and toward the defense unit. They stagger and almost lose their footing but manage to keep standing, training their weapons fearlessly to the virus. The vicious Sharptooth spots them and growls as it takes another step, creating even more cracks along the ground.

"Now!" The man cries.

"Navis, engage." One of the Operators commands and immediately the Navis pull the trigger, shooting powerful blasts and bullets from their cannons and hitting dead-on against the giant. The battlefield soon starts being covered in dust and clouds as the powerful cannons continue to fire and hitting their targets, disappearing the virus within a cloud of smoke. An incredible display of firepower, but was it enough?

"Continue firing." The man in charge commands. "We cannot let the virus through!"

The cannons continue to fire, striking their deadly firepower against the virus. It seems they are victorious, but things soon take a turn for the worse. The ground under the unit breaks apart from right under them, dropping about four of them into the chasm. The unit jumps from there for distance, but spikes from the ground rises and collide against them. Some of them are impaled into the spikes while others were thrown off to the ground. Those impaled were automatically jacked out to prevent deletion.

"It's no good!" One of the SpikeTail Navis reports. "We gave it everything we got and it's still causing damage!" He's cut off from his report as one of his teammates is blown off across the sky and slamming hard against the ground followed by jacking out. The SpikeTail turns to the smoke and gasps as he spots the Sharptooth virus in the smoke, roaring loudly and shaking the ground. "Unbelievable, the thing is hardly dama-…D…A…Aa…Gh…Ev…At…"

The signal was cut off right before the servers and monitors of the room begin to explode. The people in the room scream and cover their faces from the monitors exploding, everything totaled as the network took massive damage from this lone virus. Just what exactly are they up against?

"Ugh...SpikeTail unit, report!" The man in charge of the defense line demands.

One of the Operators gets up and checks the server, typing in commands and codes into it, but nothing. "I'm afraid the defense line failed…Our servers are down and the network is severely damaged."

The man in charge slams his fist on the table, frustrated. "No…"

The Sharptooth virus sustained damage from some of the most powerful battle chips and it still survived. Just what exactly does this virus possess that makes it so powerful? Just the virus' mere steps generate earthquakes and spikes to rise up from the ground. They have never seen anything like it before, at least nothing close to this scale. They have to do something; they cannot let it come close to the Great Valley Square.

But despite the danger of the virus, it is still far off from where Navi citizens are grouping up for the big hike to the grand opening of the Great Valley Square. It all seems peaceful in this part of Garden City's network, but soon it'll be all shaken up and stirred by the danger slowly approaching.

Littlefoot is happily walking along a road in Garden Area 2 alongside a much taller Longneck Navi. This giant Longneck Navi appears similar to Littlefoot except her shoulder pads are much smaller and her gloves and boots are slicker, more fitting for a female. Instead of a LF insignia in her crest on her chest her insignia is a TreeStar icon. One could say this Navi is Littlefoot's mother, but in reality this Navi is Jason's mother's NetNavi.

Littlefoot looks up at Jason's mother's Navi. "Hey mom, what is it again that Jason's mother wanted us to do?" With the Navi being Jason's mother's, Littlefoot shares a close bond with her to consider her his mother.

Littlefoot's 'mother' looks down at him as they walk down the road. "A recipe data from a friend for a very special meal for Jason." She informs the little Longneck, her voice as loving and soft as a mother. "His birthday is coming soon after all."

Littlefoot snaps his fingers. Of course, Jason's birthday is coming soon after all. How many days for it? A month? Two months? Littlefoot and his mother continue down the road, soon enough finding the link they were looking for.

"This is the link, little one." His mother announces as she looks down at Littlefoot. "It will only take a moment; I'll be back as soon as I can."

Littlefoot nods and watches as the tall Navi walks into the link and transfers out. Before Jason's mother left to do an errand she entrusted Jason with her PET to jack in her Navi to collect a data from her friend. Her Navi kept it a secret that it was a recipe for one of his favorite foods so she could surprise him on his birthday with it. Littlefoot enjoyed spending time with her, so he volunteered to accompany her to her friend's terminal to fetch the recipe data.

_""He's late."" _Littlefoot heard his Operator, Jason, mutter.

"Hm? Oh, you mean Kaden?"

_""Yeah, on the way home I told him specifically at this hour at my homepage but so far nothing.""_

"Maybe he overslept as always." Littlefoot giggles a bit from the comment he just made. It's pretty well known Kaden oversleeps for almost anything.

_""Well I'm going to try and call him. Be right back.""_

Littlefoot nods as his Operator leaves to give his best friend a call. While he does that and his mother is busy fetching the data he looks around the area while wandering about a bit, watching the scenery and taking in on the sights. He rarely goes into this region of Garden Area 2, and everyone knows how much Littlefoot likes to explore. He hears a rustle behind a cyber bush and out pops a little dinosaur virus. Littlefoot is amazed of the virus to be nothing more than a Tinysaurus, a rare Leaf-Eater Generation virus.

"Hey there, little guy." Littlefoot greets the little one with a smile, slowly crouching down and holding his hand out to it. But these viruses are easily startled and just the gesture alone makes the virus chirp in fear and flee, running back into the bush. "Hey wait, I won't hurt you!" Littlefoot crawls to the bush trying to find it, but the virus is fast and is already gone. Littlefoot sighs in disappointment and slowly stands up.

From behind him Littlefoot hears a female chuckle. "Wandering your eyes with your profound curiosity, my dear Littlefoot?"

Littlefoot turns to his mother and giggles while scratching the back of his head. "Aw I just saw a Tinysaurus virus. It ran away from me though."

Littlefoot's mother chuckles. "Ah yes, the ever friendly Tinysauruses."

Littlefoot begins walking back to Jason's homepage along with his mother. "They say if you're nice to them they lead you to rare battle chip data hidden underground."

"Yes, they are quite famous for battle chip hunters and curious Navis." His mother adds. "As rare as they might be, they are quite important to the network's habitat. That's why they're so shy and are told not to attack them."

Littlefoot ponder about that. It's true what she's saying, the Officials have banned Navis from attacking and taking away the Tinysaurus viruses from their natural habitat in the network, but what purpose do they have for the network's habitat. "Well yeah but I don't understand their reasons."

Littlefoot's mother stops and kneels down to Littlefoot, smiling at him. "Like you said, Tinysauruses can lead us to rare battle chip data. They dwell underground in the tunnels underneath, searching and scavenging for stray data and finding chip data as well. In a way they nourish the network with these onslaughts of new data, allowing us to discover new chips and lost information. These elements are what keeps the network up and running."

"I still don't get it." Littlefoot admits as he looks around at the environment, all of it was created from the network to resemble a Jurassic habitat for the NetNavis, how can all of this come from the aid of the Tinysauruses? "I mean, stray data and chip data, I know. But how can it all help the network?"

Littlefoot's mother smiles and slowly stands up. "You may not see it with your eyes, but deep within the heart it is visible."

Littlefoot scratches his head as he tries to make out what his mother actually means. She chuckles from the little one's puzzled expression before continuing on walking back home. "One day, you'll see."

Littlefoot smiles and nods, he has always trusted the words of his mother, they always turn out to be true. The two Longneck Navis continue walking back to Jason's homepage while in the real world Jason is busy on the phone calling up his best friend, who's late as usual.

"So he's not at his computer yet?"

On the other line, Kaden's mother is on the phone speaking. "No, he's eating his breakfast as we speak. Although he told me the network connection is strangely broken down."

Jason arches an eyebrow, finding this a bit unusual. "Connection's broken? That's odd; both our houses are connected to the same network connection and mine's working fine."

Kaden's mother finds this odd too. "Must be a bug or something in his computer. I'll have a technician take a look at it soon."

Jason nods on his end before scratching his head. "So I guess he won't be there for the grand opening, huh?"

"Well actually he did say he was coming over to your house for that."

As Jason and Kaden's mother kept talking on the phone Kaden is hard at work eating his breakfast, just about to finish with it. He silently thanks the heavens as he eats that Rex isn't there with him, otherwise he would continue his nagging from last night like washing his hands before eating and pacing himself with his food. He looks to the kitchen where his mother is talking on the phone and stops his eating as he watches the microwave acting strange, like a bunch of static lighting up the dark inside of it. He finds this odd, this isn't normal at all. It continues for a while before stopping, puzzling the boy even more about its strange behavior. Couldn't be a virus otherwise it would've continued and exploded by now. Something's going on in the Garden City Network all right.

Suddenly the microwave's door flies open as even more static erupts from inside of it. The dishwasher also blows a fuse as its door flies open. All of this prompts Kaden to stand up, completely forgetting about his breakfast. The house's alarm system's control panel starts beeping as it too starts emanating static.

All of this startles Ms. Homari as she suddenly turned around upon hearing all of this mess. She suddenly remembers Jason on the phone and brings it to her ear, horrified to realize she hears nothing but static. "Jason? Jason, are you there?" She turns to the phone's base and taps the flash button a few times, but to avail, nothing but static.

"What the heck is going on?" Kaden asks to no one in particular as everything connected to the network goes haywire. The microwave burns up in static, the flat-screen TV blows up, the lights and lamps in the house starts going on and off, overloading the bulbs as some of them explode.

"Hello? Hello?" Jason cries into his end of the phone, hearing nothing but silence before the line's interruption beep starts beeping. Jason slowly removes the phone from his ear and looks at it before hanging it up.

Rex, who's still in Kaden's computer, looks out at the broken link to the network, unsure as to what could've caused this. He throws his head up to the sky as he hears a rather loud roar, causing the cyber sky to turn colors for a moment from the roar's static. Something is out there…

The roar echoed through the whole area, startling Littlefoot and his mother. They turn around to face the network behind them, seeing nothing out of the ordinary. "What was that?" Littlefoot asks.

His mother shakes his head, unsure. "I do not know, little one."

They continue staring at the distance, waiting for anything to show up to answer their questions. But nothing shows up to even give them a hint. Littlefoot turns to his mother, "I'm going to check it out."

This should come as no surprise to his mother, Littlefoot was always one to jump in to check things that tickle his curiosity whether dangerous or not. But from hearing a roar like that, she believes she shouldn't let him go. And she responds with a shake of her head, "No Littlefoot, stay here with- Littlefoot!"

Littlefoot was already running off, once he sets his mind to do something there's no stopping him. As much as he respects his mother this is something he feels he can't ignore. I'm sorry mother, he apologizes in his head.

But he has no idea what he's going up against now. For whatever did that roar is already making a mess in one section of the city. Kaden coughs as he covers his mouth and nose from the smoke coming from the appliances that have blown up. He's not hurt at least, but there's too much smoke in the house. He walks over to a window and opens it, letting the smoke out as he sticks his head out and coughs as he tries to breathe clean air. "Mom, are you okay?" He asks as he comes back in and walks over to her to help her out.

Ms. Homari coughs as she opens the window in the kitchen, letting smoke to escape from their home and let some air in. "I'm fine, Kaden. Just a bit startled."

Kaden sighs in relief, but his relief was short-lived as he suddenly remembers his computer. "Rex!" He makes a dash upstairs and to his room, horrified to find out the air conditioner in his room has also blown a fuse and blew up, filling his room with smoke. He covers his mouth and dives for his bed, opening the window next to it and letting the smoke out.

_""__Kaden__! Are you all right?""_

Kaden is relieved to hear his Navi's voice. He dashes to his computer and finds Rex is all right. "Yeah, I'm fine."

_""What happened? I heard a roar coming from the net and then I saw your room full of smoke.""_

"I don't know, suddenly everything started to blow up." Kaden coughs again as the room is still full of smoke.

As they're talking about what's happening back in the net Littlefoot is investigating the cause of the roar. He's suddenly caught off guard as a hopper virus pops out from a hole on the ground and jumps in front of him, causing the Navi to scream in shock as he falls back. As he rubs his head he sees the hopper on his chest, staring at him with no desire to move.

"Shoo!" Littlefoot swats the hopper away, it jumps and heads back into the hole, disappearing deep into the ground.

"Hey! I was chasing that hopper!"

Littlefoot smiles as he recognizes the voice. He slowly sits up and spots none other than Cera coming over to him, but she does not look happy. She glares down at Littlefoot as she folds her arms. "Well I hope you're happy! Because of you I now lost my chance to get that hopper's chip data!"

"Why you want a BubbleRay chip data?" Littlefoot asks as he gets up to his feet. "Those chips aren't that rare and powerful."

"Hmph," Cera snorts. "Shows how much you know! Hopper viruses can also carry the SweetBubble chip data!"

Littlefoot blinks; a bit embarrassed he forgot that little fact. "Oh, right…"

The hopper viruses are one of the gentlest viruses in the virus list. They tend to show up when you least expect them, hopping around and just minding their own business. Due to their data structure they tend to generate chip data into their bodies from time to time, usually common and weak battle chips like BubbleRay and BubblyGoo, but they also rarely generate rare chip data like SweetBubble, a recovery battle chip that recovers 30 percent of the Navi's hit points and heal status ailments like blind and poison. But if you want to try out your luck in finding these chips, you gotta catch one first and extract the chip data.

The ground soon begins to shake as a thundering boom echoes through the area, startling the two Navis. A roar echoes through the air and the ground under the two of them cracks, almost breaking in two. "What the heck was that?" Cera asks as she nearly falls to the ground.

They soon hear loud footsteps, the ground under them becoming unstable and the sky turning colors as the network starts to malfunction. This scares the two of them as they look around, staying alert. Soon enough a Sharptooth virus comes up but runs past them instead of attacking, looking startled. More and more viruses begin to show up and run away past the two Navis, running for dear life from something. And then, Cera saw it: A towering creature going right for them.

"Sharptooth!" Cera screams.

* * *

"Rex!"

Rex nods and transfers himself back into his PET. Kaden had to check this out, he could hear other appliances in the neighborhood exploding and going haywire. Beeps and explosions from the homes, people screaming in terror as their machines blow up and malfunction. Kaden grabs his PET and jams it into its carrying case on his waist, grabs his battle chip holster and places them all in it and straps it to his wristband. He already changed from his sleeping clothes to his casual clothes: a pair of long black jeans, a short sleeved red shirt with a black backside and a long sleeved gray shirt underneath it. His long hair combed back and tied in a pony-tail.

"With our connection to the net out, we gotta find another place to jack in." Kaden informs his Navi.

Rex nods. _""To Jason's house.""_

Without skipping a beat Kaden runs out of his house and down the street, running toward his best friend's house. From outside he can clearly see more damage from whatever is going on. Stoplights blinking from red to green repeatedly, streetlights going on and off, televisions and appliances blowing up and catching fire, it's a network crisis! First things first, he has to check if Jason is all right and then check on the others.

But Jason has it rough enough. The TV and lamp in his home has blown up and caught fire, blocking the path to his house's second floor and to his room. Jason coughs as he's stuck, smoke threatening to choke him out. He can either get outside or try to brave the smoke and fire, but either way he can't leave Littlefoot and his mother's Navi unattended in the network in his room.

But as if things couldn't get any worse, Littlefoot and Cera are on the net running for their lives as a T-Rex virus is chasing them. The two Navis are horrified that with every step the virus takes it actually damages the ground and cracks it, threatening to break the ground in two. This is extremely bad, this virus is powerful enough as it is and Littlefoot and Cera can't face off against it with their buster cannons. Cera wishes Malory was here instead of leaving her on the net to gather with the others while she ran a quick errand for her dad. Without their Operators they can't use battle chips.

"It's gaining! Hurry!" Littlefoot screams at Cera as she brings up the rear.

"I'm trying!" Cera replies as she tries her best to run. The Sharptooth roars and brings its snout down to bite into them, luckily missing them by inches. Its snout sinks deep into the ground, cracking the ground and sending the two Navis flying with a scream and falling down a hill and into a cyber thorn growth. The two Navis grunt and scream in pain as the fall through it damages them by the thorns, each thorn stabbing them taking away two or three hit points per.

The two of them slam hard on the ground, surrounded by thorns. They slowly sit up with a groan as they rub their injuries; that was some fall. Cera slowly opens her eyes and spots a hopper virus in front of her. "A hopper!" She happily cries as she dives onto the virus, catching it before it gets away. "Got it!"

But Littlefoot is too distracted from the Sharptooth virus, wondering from where it'll dive into them. He looks around, trying to see it through the thorns while Cera is too busy scanning her hopper in an attempt to find any rare chip data. All of a sudden Littlefoot spots a giant mouth lunging at them, slamming through the thorns and almost biting Littlefoot. The Longneck screams and backs off as the bite nearly missed him.

"Aw right!" Cera shouts in victory as she holds a data orb in her hand, oblivious to what's happening. "I told you they carried SweetBubble chip data! This one had one!" With a grin she opens a folder in front of her and stores the data in it. "Can't wait to show Malory!"

"Run!" Littlefoot shouts as he turns around and pushes Cera to run as the Sharptooth virus slices the thorn growth into pieces with its foot and claws, searching for the two Navis it's looking to dine on. It roars loudly as it spots them and gives chase again, destroying the cyber growth with its massive foot and claws, apparently not getting damaged by the thorns.

Littlefoot and Cera continue running through the growth and stop in their tracks as they find two directions to which to go. They look down each direction as they catch their breath, deciding on which to go. "This way." Littlefoot points to the left. "Jason's network portal is that way; if we get to it we should be safe from the virus."

Cera looks down to the right. "Malory's port is over there! C'mon!"

Littlefoot sees Cera run to the right and runs after her. "Wait! Cera! Her port is much farther than Jason's! Come back!"

But Cera was too into her running away to her Operator's port, she just kept running as her heart beats rapidly against her chest. As much as she wants to delete this virus, she won't stand a chance unless Malory is with her to back her up with chips. By now the whole network is a mess with its ground almost cracked in two, spires popping out from the ground and damaging power columns and other network links. Hundreds of viruses in the area run for their lives as the Navis jack out and run for cover. Many of them can't believe this is happening. The entire network is suffering heavy damage, it's about to break in two!

The calamity is also happening in the real world as well. Appliances exploding and catching fire, streetlights going haywire, it's like something out of a horror movie.

"Man, this is insane!" Kaden shouts to no one in particular as he runs down the streets of Garden City. He stops and covers his face as the electronic shop's window in front of him shatters from the televisions behind it explodes.

_""The whole city is in chaos, __Kaden__!"" _Rex reports as he watches a digital map in the PET, seeing the damages in the whole city. _""Electronic appliances connected to the network are exploding and catching fire. It's like the network of the city is breaking!"" _Rex suddenly feels alarmed and blurts out. _""__Kaden__, behind you!""_

Kaden is taken off-guard from Rex's warning. Behind him? The boy looks over his shoulder and screams as a car is losing control and heading right for him! Showing off his athletic side Kaden jumps to the shattered window in front of him and propels himself off of the bottom border, flying into the electronic shop and out of harm's way as the car crashes into the building. Indeed, the whole city is in chaos.

_""__Kaden__! Are you okay? Answer me, __Kaden__!""_

Kaden slowly gets up from the floor, after launching himself into the store dodging a car his landing wasn't exactly as smooth as he would've hoped. "I'm fine…"

But things aren't so fine in the network. Littlefoot and Cera are still running for dear life from the Sharptooth virus responsible for all this disaster. Their luck runs out though as they just ran into a dead-end. A chasm lies in front of them, no doubt a huge damage to the network caused by the Sharptooth in his rampage through the net. The two Navis turn around to face the Sharptooth towering over them. They have no choice but to virus bust out of this. They change their arms to their buster weapons, training them up at the Sharptooth. The virus was about to attack them when a massive tail slams hard against its face, knocking it down to the ground.

Littlefoot turns his head to their savior. "Mother!"

Littlefoot's mother has shown up to save the two of them; her massive tail powerful enough to slam the virus down to the ground and her buster weapon at the ready. Littlefoot's mother is tall enough to stand a chance against the Sharptooth virus, but considering she isn't a fighter class Navi, this could pose a problem. She looks down at the two Navis, "Littlefoot, run!"

Littlefoot looks at the Sharptooth as it struggles to stand up. He wishes he wouldn't have to leave her to face the Sharptooth alone, but there's no other choice, he doesn't stand a chance. He nods and grabs Cera's arm as he runs away from there, taking Cera with him.

As the two giants battle, the real world is still suffering from the damage to the network. Just recovering from the mere dodge Kaden is fully on the move toward Jason's house. With all the carnage surrounding him it has not been easy getting to his friend's house, with cars paralyzed on the streets, the sidewalk riddled with glass and parts from destroyed machines, it's a wonder Kaden is even able to move.

"Excuse me. Gangway. Pardon me." Kaden tries to move through crowds of people paralyzed and moving about from the horrid moments. People are confused on what to do, others are frantic with their PETs trying to contact their Navis on the net while others are trying to find their loved ones and checking to see if they're all right.

_""It's horrible, __Kaden__."" _Rex comments as he peaks his head out from the corner of his PET, a bit frightened about what's happening. _""Everyone is at a loss on what to do, there are many people hurt and __Navis__ gone missing.""_

"I know I know! This is insane!" Kaden stops his running, he's not going to be able to cross this street with all these cars stopped in the way. The streetlights are still malfunctioning and the traffic doesn't show any signs of moving along. "How am I going to cross through this?"

_""Maybe we should just head back home and wait this out."" _A sudden explosion of a streetlight startles Rex, prompting the Navi into hiding off-screen of the PET. _""__Eegh__!""_

Kaden covers his head from the flying glass and shards from the broken streetlight. If one is jacked into the network he can clearly see what's going on. The Sharptooth virus tries to bite Littlefoot's mother, but the Navi steps back to avoid the bite and slams her tail against the virus, knocking it down once again. The Sharptooth snarls and gets up with a stomp, cracking the ground even more and causing huge spires to spike out. Littlefoot's mother steps back to avoid the spires, but one spikes out from behind her and strikes her back with a loud thud, almost toppling her to the ground.

Littlefoot and Cera watch from a close distance, watching as the battle scars the network with the Sharptooth virus' each steps. Littlefoot wishes he could help, but this virus is way out of his league, he won't even cause it to flinch. He ponders where his Operator is, something must've happen for Jason to take this long to get back. And he couldn't be any further from the truth, right now Jason is slowly succumbing to the lack of oxygen as his house is full of smoke from the fire. He tried to put it out but the lack of oxygen has been making it difficult.

A window in his home shatters, helping the smoke in flowing out of the house. Jason is helped up to his head with his arm over his rescuer's shoulder, aiding him in walking closer to the window to help him breathe.

"Jason, are you okay?" Kaden asks as he helps his friend up and to the window. "Jason, speak to me!"

Jason coughs and manages to breathe in clean air, allowing his composure to return. He slowly opens his eyes and looks at Kaden with a slight smile. "Yeah…Thanks…"

Kaden smiles back at his friend as he helps him walk outside of the house allowing him to take in huge amounts of clean oxygen. He coughs again as he's laid down on his knees to the ground, coughing out anything bad he inhaled. He slowly tries to get up, worried about Littlefoot and his mother's Navi. "Littlefoot…He's still inside…"

Kaden looks back inside the house, seeing the smoke pouring out from the door. He saw the fire inside blocking the path to Jason's room; he saw it burning out as he helped Jason out of the house. Littlefoot is without a doubt in the room. He nods at his friend. "I'll go get him." Kaden takes out his PET and looks at Rex inside. "Rex, I'm leaving you with Jason. You two call for help, all right?"

Rex nods. _""Roger, __Kaden__.""_

Kaden nods back and hands his PET over to Jason before running into the house, covering his mouth and nose with the sleeve of his shirt to protect himself from the smoke. The fire is still burning, but it's slowly dying down. He searches in the kitchen and finds a mini-fire extinguisher. With this he'll be able to put out the fire. And he better hurry too, things are horrible on the net.

Jason coughs a bit more while trying to get up. _""Take it easy, Jason. You're still drowsy."" _Rex comments to Jason.

However Jason ignores the comment, looking at Rex in the PET. "Rex…Can you locate…My mom?"

Rex blinks, unsure. _""Well, I suppose I can if she has a GPS system.""_

"Her car has one, use that."

Rex nods. "Okay." He looks to his left and holds his arm out as under his hand a window pops up with a global map of Garden City. Rex moves his hand to the side of the window to open a keyboard and types on it, searching on the map. It didn't take long to find the GPS tracking system of Jason's mother's car. "I found her! Road A-2, north from here about a twenty minute run."

Jason nods. "Thanks." With that he runs north to that specific road to find his mother. While in the house Kaden managed to put out the fire with the extinguisher, although the little extinguisher ran out of fluid just as the fire was put out. Piece of junk, Kaden cursed. He throws the extinguisher aside and runs up the stairs to Jason's room. Unaware that in the net a furious battle between the Sharptooth virus and Littlefoot's mother is well underway.

Littlefoot's mother shoots at the Sharptooth with her buster weapon, but it barely made a scratch as the Sharptooth roars, the ground breaking in two between the Sharptooth and Littlefoot's mother. The ground literally moves, splitting the network in two in a huge radius, separating Navis from friends and Operators. The earthquake was powerful enough to trip Littlefoot and Cera off their feet and to the ground, to their dismay being separated from Littlefoot's mother and now stuck with the Sharptooth.

"Oh man!" Cera cries as she looks down the huge cliff. "One false move and we'll fall to our deletion!"

Littlefoot backs off in a scare. "Nevermind that, worry about him!"

The Sharptooth was on their side, and it's ready to attack them. It roars again and jumps to crush the Navis and delete them with its claws, but in the nick of time Littlefoot's mother jumps and saves the two Navis, but at a horrible cost. The Sharptooth slammed down on her, its claws piercing into her back and pinning her to the ground, the slam hard enough to shatter the ground under Littlefoot's mother and horribly damaging her. She screams as the horrifying pain surges through her back, the damage extremely intense, something anyone would be deleted from.

"Mother!" Littlefoot screams in anguish as he just witnessed his mother being crushed under the Sharptooth, the tears almost escaping from his eyes.

_""Hey you!__ Get off of her!""_

The unknown voice caught the Sharptooth's attention, suddenly making it forget about the Longneck Navi under it. As it turned its head it suddenly got a rather mediocre shot on its face, about enough to make its head whip to the side. Littlefoot stands there with a Cannon on his arm; somebody just downloaded a Cannon battle chip.

Littlefoot looks up, recognizing the voice. "Kaden!"

"Hang tough, Littlefoot!" Kaden encourages as he made it to Jason's room and now holding Jason's PET with a battle chip in his other hand. "Here's some more backup!" He immediately slots the chip, a Cannon code B.

Littlefoot's other arm morphs into a cannon. Angry with what this Sharptooth virus has done with his mother, he holds both arms forward and shoots at the Sharptooth's face with both of them. Cannon is a battle chip with an attack power of forty per hit; Littlefoot must make each shot count to make a dent. To his dismay the Sharptooth is barely flinching although it is wincing from the shots to the face, but not budging from on top of Littlefoot's mother.

Kaden is surprised and terrified. Such an onslaught to the face and the virus isn't even flinching. Two Cannons shooting at it at once, how is it not even facing it? Littlefoot stops shooting as he notices it isn't working.

"What?" Cera is also shocked by this. "The stupid virus isn't even down?"

Littlefoot takes a step back, petrified as the virus is still intact with hardly any scratches. Exactly what is this virus they're facing?

"No way…" Kaden mutters. He fumbles through Jason's collection of battle chips, but none of them are good enough to his eyes that would do a thing. He finds another Cannon chip, code C. If two barely made it wince, then maybe three would make it flinch and move off of the Longneck Navi. Kaden has no choice but to try it. "Littlefoot! Fight on!" He cries as he closes his eyes and jams in the Cannon chip.

Suddenly the third chip data began to react with the other two chip data. Littlefoot gasps as he feels a phenomenal power in his hands; a power that made him place both his hands together. Soon a glowing cube covers his hands to his wrist, glowing in a light-blue light. To Littlefoot it felt soothing, warm.

"Wha-What's going on?" Littlefoot asks to no one in particular as the glow dies down, to his surprise seeing both his hands fused together in a rather heavy square-looking green gun with four muzzles. Littlefoot could feel the power in this mysterious weapon. A power so deadly he felt he could take on this Sharptooth and delete it on the spot and save his mother.

Cera was left speechless upon seeing this phenomenon. Even Kaden is left with his jaw on the floor before sporting a grin. "All right! I don't know what this is, but it looks powerful!"

Littlefoot nods and glares at the Sharptooth. "Get off of my mother!" With that cry he pulls the trigger and the gun fires. Four powerful shots fire from it and collide directly against the Sharptooth. Its power was enough to send the Sharptooth flying back and off its feet, colliding hard against the ground. The powerful recoil of the cannon fire pushed Littlefoot off his feet and collides hard against Cera, the two Navis slamming against the boulder behind them.

Kaden was left speechless after seeing such a powerful attack. He has never seen anything like it. To see it succeed where the Cannon battle chips failed, it was awesome! Cera and Littlefoot slowly get up, that was some smack against the boulder. But whatever that was wore Littlefoot out, he fell to his knees and almost down flat on his face.

But the ordeal was not over. The attack was powerful but it wasn't enough to delete the virus. To everyone's shock the Sharptooth slowly gets up with just a few scratches. This Sharptooth…What is it made of?

Now angry the Sharptooth roars louder than before, creating a sonic wave that triggers the strongest earthquake the network has ever suffered. Huge chasms and cliffs are formed as the ground breaks apart, severing connections from servers and terminals in the real world. Anything falling into the chasm is instantly lost, their fate unknown.

"Agh!" Kaden cries as he covers his face from the explosion of the computer monitor. He looks at the PET screen but is shocked to see a screen of static. His connection with Littlefoot has been cut off. "Littlefoot! Are you okay? C'mon, answer me! Littlefoot!"

But it is all in vain. The huge separation of the network in two is disconnecting any kind of connection between two things that are separated on each side of the chasm. With the Navis separated from the main ground from where their designated computer ports are, any connection to their PETs is cut off.

As the ground shakes from the devastating earthquake, the Sharptooth makes its way to attack the Navis that have shot it so. The two Navis cornered and terrified they hug each other as there is no way to escape. Just when it seemed to be the end a massive tail swings and slams hard against the Sharptooth's face, knocking it away and, to everyone's relief, falls down the cliff and down the chasm, its fate unknown.

The one who toppled the giant down was none other than Littlefoot's mother, she managed to get up and deliver the final blow that was needed to take the virus down. But even with the virus gone the network was still shaking, not showing any signs of stopping. The three Navis stumble their way away from the edge of the cliff, trying to find a way to cross the chasm. But to their dismay the network was basically broken in two. And their respective computer ports are on the other side.

As things go horrible bad in the net, Jason is nearly out of breath as he ran the whole way to road A-2 of Garden City in search of his mother. He was shocked and terrified to see the condition of the city from whatever happened in the city's network, and he wasn't going to stop to figure it out, he needs to see if his mother is all right.

_""Jason! Over there!"" _Rex points out from within the PET, prompting Jason to stop and look to his left. He's horrified at the sight of a devastating car accident, no doubt from the malfunctioning streetlights. As much as we wish for our family not to be involved in car accidents we hear on the news channel, Jason wasn't so fortunate. For one of the cars in the accident belongs to none other than Jason's mother.

"Mom!" Jason cries as he runs over to the scene of the accident.

"Mother!" Littlefoot cries as he runs over to his mother. The towering Navi fell against a boulder, exhausted and in agony from the massive wound the Sharptooth virus inflicted on her. He was lucky the earthquake didn't separated him from her, they lost Cera sometime after the spikes began to protrude from the ground, separating them from walls made from the network's crust.

Littlefoot stares in horror as the decimated data flow out of his mother's wounds, a sign that usually means deletion is not far off. Despite the wound Littlefoot urges her to get up, even going as far as trying to help her by pushing her off. "C'mon mother, get up…You got to…"

His mother groans in pain, "I…I don't think I can…" She tries to get up but almost immediately fails, falling back to the ground.

"Don't say that…" Littlefoot comments in anguish, unable to bear seeing her like this. "It's…It's going to okay, all right? I just got to find Cera and ask her to give up that SweetBubble data chip she found to heal you up. You're going to get better, mother. You will…"

His mother smiles, oh if it were that easy. If she had the Navi Custom program, UndrShrt, it would've saved her enough for Littlefoot's idea to work, but to their dismay she does not carry such program, and the shred in the network has separated them from their computer's port, preventing her from jacking out to her PET. "My dear Littlefoot…" She manages to speak in a weak but willing voice.

Back in the real world Jason made it to the scene of the accident. He gasps and covers his mouth in shock to see that her mother _is _in her totaled car, badly wounded and pinned in the wreckage. His mother is still alive and stirs, lifting her head off of the car's wheel and seeing his son looking down at her.

_"Do you know the way to the Great Valley Square?"_

Jason tries his best to move some of the wreckage to set her free, but the twisted and shredded debris is too much, some of them can't be moved with bare hands. He managed to get some bystanders to help him with the wreckage in an attempt to save her, but even in group effort it is useless.

_"Of course I do, mother. As a ceremony for the grand opening they have installed landmarks over the network to guide us to the square."_

Jason stops his attempts at the moment to catch his breath. He looks into the wreckage and urges his mother to hold on as help arrives. Jason desperately takes out the PET and pleads Rex to call for help through the net.

_"But it doesn't matter if I remember, because you're coming with me. Even if I have to carry you…Somehow…"_

Rex agrees and Jason jacks into the still working GPS system in the decimated car, immediately transporting the Navi into the network to signal out for help in the area. But instead of a working network to call for help, Rex is flabbergasted to find a completely demolished network, practically split in two as if a humongous earthquake destroyed it all.

_"My dear __Littlefoot__…I will always be with you…Even if you can't see me…Just listen to your heart…"_

Jason keeps his mother company as good civilians try their best to help the victims in the car crash, going up against all odds to save the souls of those injured in the accident.

As Jason reaches in and grabs his mother's hand, Littlefoot does the same in the net with his mother. But just then, almost at the same time, both hands go limp and slowly fall off of their sons' hands, sending a strong blow to both of their hearts knowing that their mothers have perished.

Littlefoot stares as his mother slowly disintegrates into particles of data and rising up into the sky, disappearing as the data returns to the network. With tears in his eyes Littlefoot slowly looks at his hand that held his mother's hand as it still holds a pixel of data from his mother and slowly disappears into his hand. Unknown to the Longneck Navi the crest on his chest reacts to this phenomenon as it faintly glows, unnoticeable. As Littlefoot then stares at the ground where his mother once laid, Jason is left paralyzed staring in disbelief at his dead mother's body, tears rolling down his cheeks.

"Littlefoot!" Kaden shouts as he's still in Jason's room desperately tapping away at the buttons on the PET, trying to get an answer, a signal, anything at all from his best friend's Navi. "Littlefoot! Are you there? Answer me, Littlefoot! Littlefoot? LITTLEFOOOOOOOOOOOOT!"

* * *

"Oh my God…" Bull's Operator, Oda, expresses in complete shock.

Netra is just as shocked as Oda is. "Whoa, that is one mean virus…"

The members of HTTP are now in Master Doppler's lab viewing something in his giant terminal monitor. The monitor shows replays of what the professor managed to record of the Sharptooth virus before the powerful virus destroyed his bug program in its rampage. The members themselves are horribly spooked of the power this virus possesses. It created an amount of damage that a net mafia dreams of accomplishing in its lifetime.

"That's quite a powerful virus…" Zill's operator, Akira, acknowledges.

Oda shakes his head. "Such a virus couldn't have been created by any error or hacker."

"Of course not you fools." The professor steps forward, also looking at the replays of the virus' rampage. "The perfect program of destruction! The ultimate virus! Remnant of the Project!"

"Remnant of the Project?" Akira echoes with an arched eyebrow. He scoffs a bit as he turns his head back to the monitor. "So this is what the boss is looking for?"

"One of them, yes." Doppler stops the replays to have a still picture of the virus, a scary and menacing still of the Sharptooth virus, a look as if it would leap out of the monitor and tear them apart at any moment. Doppler chuckled and slowly began to laugh manically at the view of the powerful virus. The destruction it created; the carnage and chaos it spread in the city. Everything the HTTP ever hoped to do and more.

Akira, Oda and Netra look at each other as the scientist laughs from the intoxicating destruction of the network. They gotta admit it's an impressive sight the amount of damage it did, and with that kind of power they can get anything they want. There would be little resistance. But still, to try to get close to that thing and capture it after seeing what it can do? That's a bit insane.

"So you actually want us to capture that thing?" Netra inquires the professor.

The professor, in response, simply shakes his head. "Not at the moment…All in due time…"

* * *

_"In today's top story: Garden City lies in ruins. What can be described as history's most terrifying network tragedy has struck the peaceful city of Garden City. Millions of electronic appliances connected to the Garden City Network __have suddenly exploded while others have experienced severe malfunctions. Streetlights have malfunctions and have caused numerous car accidents, many are injured and there are confirmed casualties. As for the status of the Garden City's Network, Officials have__ scoured the scene and, to everyone's__ horror, find the network in total ruins. A humongous __crater has split the network in two, interrupting and refusing anything on the other side to connect to their respective appliances and PETs. Hundreds of __Navis__ have already reported missing. With the network in ruins and a handful of stray data flowing in cyberspace it would take hours for the Officials to scan and identify the data to discover which __Navis__ have been deleted and which __Navis__ are still alive.__ This is, without a doubt, the worst network disaster since the incident ten years ago."_

Haruko turned off the television in his shop. He's just about sick of listening to this disaster. His shop was one of the lucky ones that were spared from any exploding appliances, although most of his machines are toast from the network overload. His NetBattle Simulators aren't working anymore and his cash register has blown a fuse. Under these circumstances no one can make business, so every shop in the city is closed down even those that weren't affected. In the shop hangs Malory, Stephen, Silus, Sally and Kaden, all of them together and glad to be okay and free of any injuries.

"I can't believe this is happening…" Stephen comments as he's sitting on the floor, his back resting against the wall. "The whole network, destroyed just like that."

Silus sighs as he's taking a seat. "And what's worse, our Navis are out there, lost and scared."

The whole gang had the misfortune of jacking their Navis into the network before this disaster started. And after the earthquake that split the network in two they all lost contact of their respective Navis, unable to jack them out or even know if they're alive. Kaden was the only one who didn't have his Navi jacked in at the time, all due to the network port from his computer destroyed.

Sally looks the saddest and hurt of them all, worried sick about her Navi, Ducky. "Ducky…"

Kaden sighs deeply as he leans over the counter; he's more worried about Jason at the moment. After a couple of hours of searching for him he found him near a car wreck with the rest of the police and ambulance. He was like a mute person; he wouldn't even tell him what happened. It wasn't until he recovered his PET from him that Rex told him what happened. Kaden tried to comfort his friend but he just pushed him away, urging him to leave him alone. Kaden just walked away and left him time alone.

"Argh, I can't believe it!" Malory spat out, showing her anger and grabbing everyone's attention. "Why weren't we warned or something? How can you miss a monstrosity like that coming?"

Everyone stayed quiet; they all know to let Malory alone to blow off steam rather than trying to calm her down. When Malory is this angry, it's best to leave her alone.

"I mean, c'mon! It messed up the network this badly and we didn't get a warning from the Officials!" Malory was holding back tears, worried sick about Cera. She tried to blow it out with anger and shouts. "I can't believe this…"

The store was in silence after Malory calmed down. What else is there to talk about other than their missing Navis and the unexpected passing of Jason's mother? Kaden sighs as he looks over at his PET, seeing Rex depressed as well as he sits there on-screen with his head slightly bowed down. Rex told Kaden how he saw the network, all battered up and in ruins. Many Navis have been confirmed to been deleted in the disaster, and there are many more missing. Kaden also remembers the virus he saw when he got to Littlefoot, the giant Sharptooth virus. Kaden blinks and digs into his pocket, pulling out three battle chips: Cannon code A, Cannon code B, and Cannon code C. He took the code C Cannon from Jason's folder until he figures out exactly what happened back there. When he downloaded the code C Cannon, the two cannons on each of Littlefoot's arms combined into a powerful one, one that managed to blow away the Sharptooth virus.

_""__Kaden?__"" _Rex calls to his Operator, getting his attention. _""__What's the matter? You've been staring at those chips with a lot of interest.""_

Kaden grips the chips in his fist before looking at Rex again. "Well…Just something that happened…You see, I downloaded these three chips to Littlefoot and…Well, it's like they combined into a much more powerful data."

Rex looks a bit surprised from what Kaden told him. Three chips combined into one powerful attack? _""That's weird, I never heard of such a thing.""_

"Me neither…" He stares at the battle chips again before storing them into his pack. "It's not the time for that now, though." He takes his PET and stands up straight, turning his head to the others. "Guys, I'm off."

Malory turns her head to Kaden upon hearing him. "Totally. You've been zoned out by yourself in that corner since you got here."

Kaden flinches from Malory's remark and responds a bit annoyed. "No! I meant I'm going into the net to find your Navis!"

Stephen's eyes widen and he quickly gets up from sitting down on the floor. "Are you crazy? The Officials have told everybody to stay off the net until all of this is resolved! If you send Rex out there he could get lost or even deleted!"

Kaden shakes his head, already determined on his decision. "As crazy as it might sound I'm still going." He smiles and looks into his PET. "Right, Rex?"

Rex nods. _""Yeah.__ I'm okay with this.""_

Silus scratches his cheek, unsure about the idea. "But uhhh…The net is a huge area, especially Garden Area. How are you going to find them?"

Kaden opens his mouth to answer, but maybe he spoke too soon and closes his mouth. Silus' right, he has absolutely no idea on where to begin the search. With the network split in two, he'd have to find a place to jack in to reach both ends since going over the chasm is absolutely impossible.

Knowing the predicament Rex suggests a place to start. _""We could start our search from where you last saw __Littlefoot__, Kaden__.""_

"But the net is still unstable." Stephen suddenly blurts out, still trying to get Kaden out of his plan. "I mean, you're still new to all of this, you're not exactly…Um…"

"What he means is that you're not good enough."

Everyone in the room turn to the main door where a person is standing by the entrance with the door wide open. This person is a black haired female, wearing a dark blue suit with a thick belt around her waist with her PET holster.

"Hmph, took the words right out of my mouth…" Malory mutters.

Haruko steps out from behind the counter to attend the girl. "Can I help you?"

The girl looks at Haruko with a stern look. "You can start by confiscating the boy's PET." She reaches to her PET and holds it out, showing off an emblem on the screen with some other information. "Kiraa Masako, official member of Net Saviour."

_""Net __Saviour__?""_Rex inquires; he is fairly new to the world after all.

Silus explains for the Navi. "Net Saviour; a special group of Net Agents whose job is to protect the network. They're good; they usually get dispatched when the situation is at its worst."

"And still you people are too late to do anything about what happened today!" Apparently Malory is still steamed about the incompetence of the Officials to even issue out a warning.

"I apologize for that," Kiraa begins as she walks into the store. "But the virus rampaged through our network first and destroyed any means to issue out a warning. By the time we got dispatched the virus already found its way to the Garden Area." She stops in the middle of the room and looks around, seeing everything in order other than busted Simulators and a broken register. "We're doing safety checks in every building, as I see this one was a lucky one."

"Just a messed up register and broken simulators." Kaden informs the Net Saviour official.

She nods, understanding the damages. "Very well then, at least no injuries." She turns her head to look at Kaden. The look alone kind of sends a shiver down Kaden's spine, he feels as if he's seen this girl before, but he can't remember where exactly. "As for you," She suddenly starts again. "I suggest you forget about your little idea about finding your friend's Navis. I expect them deleted after such a disaster, but if they are alive then we will find them." She lowers her head as she closes her eyes and turns her head away a bit. "Unlikely though…"

Kaden glares at her. While he knows she has a point, he's not about to just sit around and leave his friends' Navis out there in danger. If there's at least a speck of help he can do, he would gladly give a hand.

Kiraa turns around, preparing to leave. "Anyway, glad to see no one is hurt. Stay clear of any electronics for the moment and especially stay out of the net." And with that she takes her leave, closing the door behind her as she exits.

"…What a hot-head." Malory comments, sounding a bit disgusted in a way.

Silus looks over at Kaden. "Well Kaden, I guess you're not going anywhere."

"Heh!" Kaden slowly smiles, if they thought she scared him out of searching for his friends' Navis then they don't know Kaden Homari. "As if I'm gonna stand around and let them do all the work."

"What?" Stephen sounds a bit surprised at Kaden's response. "You mean you're still going?"

Kaden nods with a grin. "Of course! I'm not one to leave my friends hanging!"

"But…"

"Aw forget it, you guys!" Malory barks as she waves them off, stomping to the backdoor. "Let Kaden go and have his Navi deleted! Who cares anyway!" She opens the backdoor and slams it behind her, shaking a bit some of the battle chips on display on the wall.

Haruko frowns, worried about her daughter. Being separated from Cera isn't going too well with her. "Don't worry about her. She's just scared, that's all." He turns to the rest of the gang. "We all are."

The gang nods, they all are scared all right. They don't know what's going to happen next. They don't know if the virus is coming back or if their Navis are gone forever. Silus looks into his PET, seeing it empty from that Flyer Navi he's grown to love, his best friend. Stephen slowly slides back down on the ground to sit down, worried about his lovable and care-free SpikeTail Navi. Sally has been quiet all this time, extremely worried about her Swimmer Navi, the Navi she's had since kindergarten.

Kaden looks at each of their faces. He's lucky he still has Rex with him, but they have lost their Navis somewhere in the net. He can't give up hope that they're gone, they're out there somewhere, and he's going to find them and bring them home. Kaden looks into his PET, seeing Rex's determined face. His Navi nods, agreeing to go on the search. Kaden nods back with a smile and looks up at his friends. "Cheer up, guys. I'll find your Navis…And I'll bring them home."

He goes to exit the shop but, for the first time since they got there, Sally moves and grabs Kaden's arm, stopping him. "Wait…"

Kaden stops and turns to Sally. "Erm, Sally?"

Sally looks deeply worried, but she manages to smile. "I believe in you…You'll find them…"

Kaden smiles and winks at her. "I promise."

Sally smiles. "Here, this is for you." She digs into her pocket and hands a battle chip to Kaden. The boy curiously looks at the battle chip and holds it up to his face. The battle chip has a picture of Sally's Navi, Ducky, and the letter D on it.

"It's a chip that I made." Sally explains. "I'm sure it'll help you."

Kaden smiles and stores the chip into his pack before looking at Sally. "Thanks, it'll come in handy."

"Be careful out there, Kaden!" Haruko instructs the boy. "If you need help just let me know!"

Kaden nods. "I will Mr. Haruko!" With that he turns and waves to them. "Just leave it to me!"

"Be careful!" Silus shouts at him as he leaves.

"Don't worry about Jason! We'll be there for him!" Stephen adds. That comment shifted Kaden's mind to his best friend. Jason…He must be taking his mother's death very hard. To be there and not being able to do a thing to help her…

_""I tried to call for help, __Kaden__."" _Rex admits, sounding extremely sad._ ""But the network was so damaged; I couldn't even get through…""_

"It's not your fault, Rex…" As Kaden sprints down the road, he could feel tears starting to run down his cheeks, feeling for his friend. "It's not your fault…"

As he runs down the road to find a suitable place to jack in, Jason is lost in his mind and anguish in his home. Curled up in a corner of his room he cries his heart out, his face sunk into his hands as the tears roll down his face. He still can't believe this is happening, to lose his mother just like that. Why…Why did she decide all of a sudden to go out for some stupid errands? Why choose this day, of all times? How could she…

Jason slowly lifts his head up, his cheeks damp in tears from all the crying. Shakily he reaches and grabs his PET, looking at the empty screen. He wishes Littlefoot was here, he always knew how to cheer him up. But today…Today he's lost…

"Littlefoot…" Jason mutters. "Littlefoot…" He mutters again, a bit louder. "Littlefoot…" He mutters once again, louder than last time. He then started to leak tears again, not being able to hold it in any longer.

"LITTLEFOOOOOOOOOOT!"

* * *

"On the next chapter of Land Before Time: Battle Network!"

"The Garden City network is totally in ruins…How are you supposed to find the Great Valley Square in this?"

"Don't give up, Littlefoot! Your mother's soul is still with you! Find the signs and they'll lead you to the Square!"

"But it's such a dangerous journey…Without Jason…Can I do it?"

"Next time on Land Before Time: Battle Network: 'Find the Great Valley! Network in ruins!'"

"What the? That virus is still alive?"

"Littlefoot!"


	9. Find the Great Valley! Network in ruins!

Littlefoot grunts as he slowly pulls himself up a rather steep hill, a result from the disaster about an hour ago. Since his mother was deleted he felt like he was incomplete, like if a programmer extracted a piece of his programming and left him without it. He despised this feeling, the thought of his mother gone forever. How stupid he was to leave like that to investigate that roar, how stupid he was to leave her side…

Littlefoot slowly stands to the top of the hill, his chest heaving as he takes deep breaths recovering from the agonizing climb. He looks onward to see the whole network in ruins, spires and spikes protruding from the ground, the soil tore in two where a huge gash on the ground basically tore the network in two. No way will he be able to cross that…

He tried to regain communication with Kaden, but this giant separation of the network has cut off his communication line with him, he's now stranded in the network. His only choice is to find the Great Valley Square, but after such a disaster the question is: Will the landmarks installed for the grand opening still be there?

He slowly lowers his eyes to his chest, feeling that empty feeling again being filled by a strange feeling of another's presence, as if someone's standing right next to him. "Mother…" He whispers as he slowly moves his hand to his chest over his emblem, a hint of tear in his eyes. "You're here with me…Aren't you…?"

* * *

The search for a Jack-In port was a nightmare! Kaden ran in and out of stores and inspecting light posts for a place to jack in, but all of them are either fried, broken or locked down. This is just insane, Kaden thought, not one place to jack in. What does a friend have to do to help find his friends' Navis around here?

""_Kaden,"" _Rex calls to his Operator as he reads a new email in the PET. _""I just received a newsletter from the Officials and they report that for safety all functioning Jack-In ports in the city have been locked down to prevent any tampering in the network.""_

Kaden stops his running and takes out his PET to look at his Net Navi. "Well that stinks. What are we going to do now?"

""_Don't ask me, I'm doing my best looking for a place to jack in via this satellite map but all of them appear as either broken or locked down.""_

Kaden curses under his breath. Great, what is he going to do now? He despises standing around like this when he knows he can do something to help his friends. There's just gotta be a functioning port that isn't locked down. But where? Think Kaden, think.

""_The only ports that aren't blocked are the ones the officials are using,"" _Rex informed to his Operator. _""SciLab's laboratory ports and warehouse ports.""_

"I guess I have no other leads." Kaden sighs as he puts away his PET before taking off to SciLabs. "Since the trains are offline I'll have to get there on foot."

""_I don't think they are even going to let you in.""_

"Hey, my dad works there!" Kaden informed his Net Navi with a smile. "I'm sure they'll let me in!"

Rex frowns, not believing this'll work. _""Whatever you say…""_

While Kaden is busy with that the Net Saviors' HQ was stirring with activity. Agents from the force are in a scramble as they hurry their Navis to the net to survey the damage, find and identify lost Navis and assist in any way they can. Just coming into the building is none other than Kiraa, an official member of Net Saviors and Grayscale's Operator. She calmly walks down the halls with her hands in her pockets, not seeming to be in any rush to get to where she's needed. She walks into one of the rooms, only lifting her eyes to open the door and to look into the room. "Any updates on the situation?"

A man in the room turns to face her as he wields his brown PET. A man in his early 20s; he wears a pair of black jeans with a black long-sleeved jacket with purple lining on the shoulders, wrists and waist along with black sneakers and a black headband to keep his rather long brown hair from drooping forward into his eyes. On his jacket and headband the emblem of his Navi adorns them, a circular emblem with the letters BT with a silhouette of a horn behind the letters. The man greets Kiraa with a smile. "You sure know how to make an entrance. Popping out of nowhere as usual, eh Kiraa?"

Kiraa couldn't help but smile a bit at the comment as she walks up to him and the machine while taking out her PET. "Amusing as always, Asho."

Asho chuckles with a slight grin. "Always a pleasure." He then turns to the machine and its monitor. "The situation hasn't changed much. We keep finding stray data from deleted Navis and the virus hasn't been spotted or heard from once."

Kiraa finds the information rather interesting. "You believe it might've deleted itself?"

Asho shakes his head in response. "Not sure, it could've gone dormant or maybe it moved on to another network."

"That's the last thing we want to happen." Kiraa grabs the jack-in cable of her PET's and extends it out, ready to jack in. "Jack in, Grayscale. Power up."

She plugs the cable into the terminal and Grayscale transfers out of the PET and into the network. Lying before the Alimon Navi is the horrible sight of the destroyed network, spikes and spires protruding from the ground and cracks and crevasses riddling the ground. It's a horrible sight, no doubt.

Grayscale turns to her left to see Asho's Net Navi. A vermilion color 8 foot tall bulky Net Navi with a yellow-ish vermilion chest plate armor with broad shoulder pads and rather bulky gloves. Around his waist he wears a red belt and from the waist down this Net Navi has a design that makes it look like he's wearing pants with a brown line from the waists down to the legs. From the knees down he wears armor-like vermilion colored boots and knee pads.

The Navi sports a very friendly smile on his face. He seems to be from the Ankylosaurus Series of the Leaf Eater Generation. He has a horn in the middle of his face made of cybernetic energy like Cera's and a couple of yellow-ish vermilion colored eye patches around his eyes and two small cybernetic-made horns on his head, on his back he also has protective cybernetic spikes. While he has a tail, the tip of it is missing its tail club that all Ankylosaurus wield. Instead he has what seem to be four small spikes at the end, kind of looking like feathers, no doubt a customization from his Operator.

"Hi, Grayscale!" The Navi greets with a friendly wave of his hand, his voice a bit childish.

Grayscale couldn't help but smile a bit; this Navi seems to be designed after a child due to his friendly personality and his Operator's choice for his voice. Despite her hate toward the Leaf Eater Generation, Grayscale kind of liked this tall kid. When it came to assignments in teams, Grayscale always teamed up with him instead of one of the Alimon Navis from the Rock Rangers unit.

"Heh, Booster." Grayscale started as she looked at the Navi. "Always hard at work, huh?"

Booster gave a bit of a chuckle as he scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, never a dull moment." He looked to his right and noticed a group of pixilated data flowing closer to him. With a frown he held his hand to it and began analyzing it which soon a window popped in front of him as the scan finished.

Booster sighed upon reading the thing, another data from a deleted Spiketail Navi. "Another one to add to the obituary. This is like the tenth one I've found in just ten minutes." He closed the window and looked ahead to the ruined network, his green eyes seeing all of the floating data riddling the sky. "What a horrible day this has been…"

Grayscale just watched the scenery without any care of the lost ones. "And it's only going to get worst from here on out."

Booster gave a worried sigh. "Oh man, I hope it's not too bad out there for any Navis still alive…"

Graycale gave a glance at Booster before taking a step toward the ruined network. "Let's begin on our assignment."

* * *

Littlefoot breathes heavily as he struggles against the cyber sun in the network. He's currently in a desert landscape programmed in the network, no doubt simulating a prehistoric desert to keep with the Garden City's network theme of the prehistoric era. Littlefoot questions whose idea was it to put such a punishing sun in this part of the network as every step he takes his feet take a burn from the hot sand, the heat slowly zapping away at his hit points and making him weaker.

He slowly lifts his head up and covers his eyes with his hand from the damaging sun, mocking him as it keeps attacking him with its violent heat and rays, just like the real sun would in a desert. Traveling through this desert has become a nightmare thanks to that Sharptooth virus' earthquake; there are huge boulders and spikes protruding from the ground and making the travel incredibly difficult and long. Littlefoot won't last too long out here at this rate. If only his mother were here…

"Mother…" Littlefoot still couldn't believe his mother was gone; it was like some kind of nightmare. All alone in the network, separated from his Operator, his mother deleted…He doesn't know if he can survive this. Without Jason, Kaden, or any of his friends to lead and guide him, it looks hopeless…

Littlefoot gasps as his foot steps on nothing and he falls forward, falling flat on his chest in a hole on the ground. He coughs a bit and spits out sand from his mouth, the nasty salty taste of sand lingering on his tongue. He looks down at to what he fell into and was startled to see he fell into a giant footprint of a dinosaur, the footprint states a print of a Longneck, not to mention the scent. At first Littlefoot was plagued by memories of his mother by seeing this footprint, but as his mind calmed down he realized he just found one of the many landmarks that the admins of the network have installed to lead them all to the Great Valley Square.

A track of Longneck footprints…

A group of trees full of TreeStar chip data…

The great rock that looks like a Longneck…

Past the mountains that burn…

And at the end a water-filled area before finally finding the Great Valley Square ahead…

Littlefoot looks up upon seeing a shadow over him, spotting something floating down toward him. "A TreeStar…?"

Indeed, it is. A leaf in shape of a star slowly floats down and lands in front of him, some crystal clear water forming in the middle of it with his face reflecting off of its clear surface. These delicious delicacies are what compose the recovery Battle Chip TreeStar, which recover fifty percent of a Leaf Eater Navi's hit points. Littlefoot slowly reaches to it and grabs it, pulling it closer to him as he slowly gets up, looking at his reflection in the water as it slowly drips off of the leaf and to the ground. The question from where it came from didn't crossed Littlefoot's mind at the time, he was more focused in the thought of his mother's passing. Her last words…Her desires for her son to reach the Great Valley Square and return to Jason…

With newfound courage and strength Littlefoot opens his personal folder by holding his hand out and deposits the TreeStar data into it, saving it for later if his hit points were ever to be dangerously low. He's determined now to find the Great Valley Square and Cera and reunite with Jason once again. He then turns around, looks at the trail of footprints and follows them, his mind forgetting about his tired and breathless form as he takes off into a run to follow the road ahead of him. Not even the sun is going to slow him down.

He runs as fast as his feet could take him, determined to get to his goal. He forgets about the scorching sand underneath his feet, the rocks and pebbles stinging the sole of his feet, the sweat slipping down his face. He focused on his road, feeling the adrenaline pumping him as his data structure kept strong to keep him going. Such advanced AI, where even programs can feel human emotions, body heat, heart beats, even sweat. Littlefoot comes to a stop in front of a steep hill. Not even this is going to stop him. With a deep breath he slowly walks up the hill, his body arching forward and digging his fingers into the hot sand in order to keep himself from falling back and rolling backwards down the hill. He grunts a bit as the heat of the sand and rocks burn at his fingers and toes, but he kept on going, ignoring the sting. He eventually reaches the top, breathing heavily and fanning his fingers to cool them off. Up on top he could see the long road he has ahead, a long and dangerous one as he can still see the huge crack that tore the network in two thanks to that Sharptooth virus. He scans the area to find any other Navis alive that he could team up with and travel together to the Square, but he finds none…No, scratch that, he sees someone up ahead…Orange, hints of red here and there…Could it be?

"Cera!" It is! With much glee Littlefoot runs down the hill to the orange form up ahead who tries in vain to look for a way to cross the huge crack that has split the network in two. "Cera!"

"Littlefoot?" Cera lifts her head with an arched eyebrow. Could it be who she thinks that is? She looks around and gasps in surprise to see the Longneck Navi running up to her. With a slight smile Cera runs up to her Longneck friend, happy to see that he's alive. "You're okay!"

Littlefoot gives his usual smile as he comes to a stop in front of Cera. "Glad to see you're okay too!"

Cera looks around as she tries to find somebody else. "Um, where's your mom?"

Upon hearing the question Littlefoot felt his heart sank again. With his head slowly bowing down Cera could already guess what happened to her. With a frown Cera turns her head away, feeling sorry for her Longneck friend. But then, just as quick as the moment came the entire subject changed entirely. "So, what are you doing all the way over here?"

The question felt like a low blow from him, which made Cera narrow her eyes a bit and glare at him. "What am I doing all the way over here? What does it look like? I'm _trying_ to find a way to cross this huge crack on the ground no thanks to that virus!"

Littlefoot scratches the back of his head. Right, that was a stupid question, he thought. "I highly doubt we'll find any way to get to the other side…" Littlefoot looks at the huge crack and then turned his head to his left to see the trail of footprints heading off that way and away from them. "Anyway, we should head to the Great Valley Square," Littlefoot informs his Threehorn friend. "There should be open ports over there for us to contact our Operators."

"The Great Valley Square?" Cera inquires as she walks over to the edge of the crack and looks down at the deep, deep chasm. She looks both ways trying to find a way to cross it. "Littlefoot, I seriously doubt the square is even standing after that gigantic earthshake from the Sharptooth virus. I say we find a way to cross this huge crack and find our computers' ports!"

Littlefoot shoots a glare at Cera. "But Cera, I told you there's no way to cross it!"

But Cera didn't listen, as usual. "Where did that come from anyway?" She asked as she kept walking along the edge to look for that way to get across. "I thought you were the one who always told us not to give u-waaaaaahh!"

Littlefoot was startled as Cera suddenly fell through weak ground along the edge. "Cera!" Littlefoot ran to where Cera was and looked down. Luckily Cera fell on a platform along the wall of the chasm and slipped all the way down to a lower platform. Littlefoot couldn't believe how lucky Cera was; to land on a platform like that instead of falling to the endless pit to oblivion and not be deleted. "Cera! Are you all right?"

"Of course I'm all right!" Cera bellowed as she slowly got up and dusted herself off. She looks up the steep hill he slid down from and frowned with a growl, there's no way she'll be able to climb this. She looks to her right to find an opening through the wall, a small passage no doubt.

"Cera!" Littlefoot calls out to her again.

Cera looks up at Littlefoot. "You don't have to shout! Listen, I can't get up to where you are but I found a dark cave down here! Just go on and I'll catch up!"

Littlefoot nods, agreeing to what Cera told him. "All right, but be careful!"

Cera replied with a shrug as she walks into the cavern. "Yeah yeah, it's not like viruses can take me down…"

Littlefoot moans to himself after hearing that. Typical Cera, always thinking she's the toughest Navi there is in the cyber world and invincible. Sometimes she can be a handful. Littlefoot got up with a sigh, turned around and wished Cera good luck before continuing on his way, following the Longneck tracks that will surely lead him to the Great Valley Square.

* * *

_BEEP BEEP…BEEP BEEP…BEEP BEEP…BEEP BEEP…_

_PING!_

"_Jason? Are you there? C'mon man, pick up…We're all worried about you, Jason. We're terribly sorry about your mother. My sister's been awfully worried about you; she wants to talk to you. We all want to talk to you…Meet us at the usual this afternoon, Jason. Please…"_

_CLICK!_

Jason slowly looked over to his desk where his PET laid after Stephen's message in the PET's voice mail ended. That's the third call from the gang that he has received today, trying to get him out of the house and to talk to him. But why bother? They're just going to express how sorry they are about his mother's death and just being there for him lending their shoulders for him to cry on. But Jason didn't want that, he just want to be left alone.

Jason curses the Official's answer to reconnecting communications by installing an old communication satellite in space. While unreliable and old in technology it could still allow people to communicate with each other via their PETs, at least until the network is up and running one hundred percent.

_BEEP BEEP…BEEP BEEP…BEEP BEEP…_

Jason groans as he turns over on his bed, his face buried deep into his pillow. Why can't they take a hint? He doesn't want to speak with any of them; he didn't even let the Officials in his house to inspect the damages and to send people in to repair the damages. He lost Littlefoot _and _his mother; it's too much for him to bear all at once…

_PING!_

"Hello, Jason? Are you there? It's me, Rooter."

Rooter! Jason turned over and made a jump off the bed, unfortunately he was a bit sluggish and his foot got tangled in the covers and he took a nasty fall to the ground on his face. With a grunt Jason got up to his feet while rubbing his face and took his PET from the desk and answered the device's phone. "Mr. Rooter!"

"_Oh! Jason, there you are. I was starting to get worried."_

Jason closed his eyes as he slightly bowed his head. "Sorry…"

Rooter is an old friend of Jason's father who lives and works at Garden City's water plant facilities, WaterCorp. He's kind of an old man in his early 60s but his mind and memory are still as sharp as a tack. Since Jason's father is almost always out of town in business and traveling, Rooter has taken it upon himself to check up every now and then on Jason and his mother, almost like a father figure himself.

"_That's all right, at least you are okay." _Rooter comments through the PET._ "I was getting worried after that disaster in the network."_

"Hm, yeah…"

"…_Is your mother around?"_

Jason winced at the question. His…Mother?

"…_Jason?" _Rooter was starting to get uncomfortable at Jason's silence. _"Is your mother all right?"_

Jason holds back some tears, trying not to break out crying in front of Rooter while on the phone. "She's…" he starts but stops himself, his voice already cracking and shaking. "She's…"

On the other end Rooter is looking into his PET's screen, watching Jason's expression as it's obvious he's trying not to break out in tears. The message is already clear; Jason's mother was a victim in the network disaster. Rooter lowers his hat a bit, slightly covering his eyes with the hat's hood. _"I'm so sorry…"_

"It's just not fair…" Jason comments as he keeps trying to hold back the tears, breaking into a ramble. "I mean, of all days to go out she picks today, and then she takes the long way to her destination. Then the horrible happens and everything falls apart and creates all of this mess and…" He stops as he rubs his eyes, tears starting to leak out again. "And…It's all my fault…" He buries his face in the palm of his free hand, the guilt kicking in. "I could've gone instead of her but I told her I promised my friends I'd be at the grand opening of the Great Valley Square…I should've gone and not her…!"

Rooter closed his eyes in respect to Jason's loss, but what he was hearing from Jason just not fell well with him. _"Jason…It's not your fault, it's not anybody's fault about what happened to your mother…Sometimes these things just happen…Some die before their children, sometimes even the children die first…It's just the way life can be sometimes…"_

Jason lowered his eyes as his back rested against the wall as she slid down to a sitting position against it. "Life's unfair if you ask me…"

"_Sometimes it is, unfortunately." _A moment of silence fell between the two of them before Rooter continued. _"Did your friends make it through the disaster all right?"_

Jason turned his head slightly from his PET. "Yeah, but I don't feel like seeing them right now…"

Rooter sighed, no doubt an effect from losing his mother. _"Jason, I may not be your father, but I'd like you to be with your friends. It's better than sulking by yourself like this. You need your friends now more than ever."_

Jason kept quiet…Rooter is right, during these tough times it's best to be with your best friends, to share your pain, your feelings, to hold each other's hand and survive through the worse. Why is he stuck here all by himself refusing to meet his friends? The pain of his mother's passing? The pain in his heart that makes him want to be alone? Regardless the reason, Jason always pulls through in a pinch with his friends' supports. And right now, he really needs them.

"_I have to go now, Jason." _Rooter said after looking to his left. _"They need me in the main control room."_

Jason looked at Rooter and nodded. "All right, take care."

Rooter smiled a bit. _"You too. I'll contact you later when I can to check up on you."_

Jason smiled a bit. "Okay…And thanks, it really felt good in spilling my guts out like that."

Rooter chuckled a bit. _"You'll feel better when you're with your friends again. Goodbye."_

As the phone screen closed Jason lowered his PET, thinking back to his mother. How painful it was to him to see her die right there in front of him, to see and feel her hand fall off of his. Jason shook the thought away and slowly got up. That's all in the past now, and although it hurts him deeply he must move on with his life. He looks again at his PET as he lifts it up and presses a few buttons, accessing his PET's voice mail and hearing again the message Stephen left in it.

"_Jason? Are you there? C'mon man, pick up…We're all worried about you, Jason. We're terribly sorry about your mother. Can you please come and see us if you won't answer your phone? My sister's been awfully worried about you; she wants to talk to you. We all want to talk to you…Meet us at the usual this afternoon, Jason. Please…"_

Jason smiled a bit. The usual place, the big tree house behind Sally and Stephen's home. Behind their two-story home they have a very old tree, a huge one too at that. The tree house was a project between Stephen and his dad for last summer and it really came along. All right, Jason thought, I'll be there.

As Jason closed everything in his PET he came to look at the empty light-blue screen of his PET's main screen. He couldn't help but frown at the empty screen. He would always see Littlefoot there staring back at him with his usual smile, a comment or two before putting the PET away and heading out for the day.

"_According to the net the weather is going to be great today."_

"_Did you remember your homework? Anything at all before you leave?"_

"_Remember you promised to help your mom at home after school today."_

Jason gave a heavy sigh as he turned his head to his busted computer. He wonders if Littlefoot is all right. What's his status now? Where is he going? If he's hurt or crippled. "Littlefoot…" He whispers. "I wonder if you're okay…"

Littlefoot may be all right for now, but inside the ruined network deep in the cave of the chasm Cera is traveling through its dark and creepy tunnels. Darkness was never Cera's best friend as it tends to hide things from her that jump out at her totally uncalled for. It brings her memories of those evil Sharptooth Navis that jumped her almost a year ago that resulted in her deletion.

She shook her head to drive the thought away; she couldn't be distracted about such memories now! She has to focus on getting out of here and find a way to contact Malory! That's all that matters now. She jumps down from a higher level in the tunnel and looks around, where the heck is the exit? She turns around to continue but fails to notice the hill in front of her, making her lose her footing and fall forward into a roll, rolling down a hill for the third time today. She lands hard on the ground below with a grunt, her face in the dirt again.

"Peh!" She spits dirt from her mouth as she raises her face, her eyes in a glare. Can't believe my luck, she thought, on my face three times today. She slowly gets up and dusts herself off with a slight growl. After doing so she turned around to continue her way, but then she stopped cold in her tracks. There, lying under a lot of rock and dirt was the Sharptooth virus that started all of this mess!

Cera screamed in shock and backed away, half-expecting the Sharptooth to come alive and delete her. She desperately looked around for a place to hide, what a bad time to be out in the open like this! Where to hide, where to hide?

She looked back at the Sharptooth virus, still seeing it motionless. She kept staring at it, waiting for it to wake up, but its eyes never open. Strange, when viruses die they are just deleted and are de-rezzed from the network, so why is this one still here? It couldn't have survived such a long drop, right?

Cera gave a smug grin as an idea came to her. If this Sharptooth virus was so powerful that it tore the network in two, then in its data it must have a very powerful chip data. Maybe a giga class chip! Shouldn't take more than a few seconds.

Slowly she steps toward the seemingly dead virus, taking a deep breath as she gets closer and closer. She couldn't help but gulp a bit as she stands dangerously close to the virus, it's just a bit scary being this close to such a powerful beast, especially near the one responsible for breaking the entire network in two. On the other hand, this could be an opportunity of a lifetime to scan such a powerful virus for any chip data.

"All right, stinky face…" Cera talked to no one in particular. "Let's see what you have for auntie Cera…"

She slowly brought up her hands and slowly moved them toward the Sharptooth, she has to be in contact with the virus to be able to even scan the thing for chip data. The others will be really jealous of her when she shows off the powerful chip she'll find now.

She suddenly stops as she's inches away from touching the virus. Something doesn't feel right, it's like she's being watched. She turns her head to the right and got the surprise of her life as a huge eye was staring right back at her! Cera screams in terror and backs up quickly as the whole situation registers in her mind: This Sharptooth virus is still alive!

The virus growls as it slowly starts to pick itself up with its tiny arms, toppling the boulders and rocks off of its back. It roars loudly and sends another sonic wave, and although harmless the sonic wave was powerful enough to knock Cera away into the air and to the ground in a loud thud. Cera gets up on all fours and shakes her head from the daze, gasping to see the Sharptooth virus about to get up. With another roar from the Sharptooth the cavern begins to shake, stalactites starting to fall and rocks from the ceiling falling down. Cera screams as she avoids stalactites from falling on her and she runs for her life away from the Sharptooth and to find the exit.

As she runs she jumps left and right to avoid falling rocks and stalactites, trying desperate to get away from the virus. She stops to look around and spots a hole on the roof leading to the outside. Quickly devising a way to get up there she runs to the wall and jumps, her feet kicking off the wall and to the other wall close by. As quickly as her feet touched that wall she kicks off of it and goes up even higher, kicking off the other wall and then kicking off a stalactite and jumps through the hole and landing on the ground above. Finally, she thought, fresh air and sunlight.

Upon feeling another earthshake she looks over her shoulder and screams as the ground starts to crack, threatening to swallow her into the cavern below again. She forces herself up to her feet and runs for it as the crack gets worse and longer, the Sharptooth virus from below roaring loudly as it slowly emerges from below ground…

* * *

Littlefoot looks up at the top of the trees standing tall in front of him, looking up at the TreeStar chip data hanging high on the branches just out of reach. Littlefoot thanks the heavens as he just found another of the landmarks which leads to the Great Valley Square. A group of trees filled to the top with TreeStar chip data, out of reach and just there for decoration.

"Oooo, look at all the tree-stars!" Ducky comments as she walks up next to Littlefoot. "There are so many of them! Yup yup yup!"

Littlefoot giggles with a slight grin as he saw Spike licking his lips. "All you can eat. Too bad they're just there to lead us the way."

"Aw, maybe Petrie can fly up and get some!" With a little barrel roll Petrie flies up to the tree-stars to try to get some.

Littlefoot found Ducky and Spike in a pond not too far away from these trees. He was even luckier to find that Petrie was nearby with her; apparently all three of them were together before the earthshake caused by the Sharptooth virus. This should come as no surprise to Littlefoot, of the whole gang these three are the most punctual and usually early in the meeting area. This came to a relief to him; they're all safe and accounted for. Well, all except for Cera who got separated from Littlefoot a couple of hours ago. "Hahah, I told you Petrie, those are supposed to be just for looks." Littlefoot told to his flying friend with a laugh.

But Petrie wanted to try anyway. He flew up to one of the tree-stars and clamped his beak on one of them and started pulling hard, starting a rather amusing tug-of-war with the forces of nature. He pulled as hard as he could while at the same time flapping his wings to rip the leaf off, but the branch proved tougher as it refused to let go of it.

"Nnngh! Let go!" Petrie complained in a muffled tone as he kept trying to pull the tree-star out of the branch's grasp.

"You're not going to get it!" Littlefoot teased in a sing along-y voice as he held his arms behind his back.

Petrie just ignored Littlefoot's teasing and continued to pull on the leaf with little results; he really was right about these TreeStar data being just for show. A strong pull from Petrie causes his grip on the leaf break off and sending him flying back and spiraling down to the ground, causing the ones on the ground to gasp. "Petrie!"

"Whoa! Aaah!" Petrie tried to regain his composure but he was having a hard time in just getting upright and regaining control of his fall. "Catch meeeee!"

Realizing that Petrie can't stop his fall Spike backed up and held out his hands like a football player getting ready to catch the football. His eyes on Petrie Spike sprints back and forth trying to pinpoint Petrie's landing point. His sharp eye and measurement pays off as Spike safely catches Petrie in his arms. Relieved Petrie gives off a sigh of relief, looking up at his catcher. "Good catch, Spike."

Spike gives his famous smile and gives Petrie a good lick, making the Flyer giggle from the feeling of his tongue licking against him. As the licking stops Littlefoot and Ducky run up to the two of them. "Are you all right?" Littlefoot asks.

Before Petrie could answer they all heard a scream from far off. They all look at each other before turning their heads this way and that in every direction trying to find the source of the scream. Just in case Littlefoot grabbed his right arm and enabled his buster cannon, getting himself ready just in case something hostile shows up their way. "Did you hear that?" Littlefoot asked, making sure he wasn't hearing things.

"It sounded like somebody is in trouble." Ducky declared as she stood behind Spike for protection.

"B-But from where?" Petrie shakily asked as he's still being held in Spike's arms, lowering his body as if Spike's arms would protect him.

Soon enough all four of them jump from the sudden loud roar followed by a slight earthshake. The roar alone made Littlefoot's blood run cold, he recognized that roar. The roar from the virus that…No, it can't be! That virus is dead! He saw it fall into the chasm through the ground!

The group was startled again to hear the scream again. If they didn't know better, that scream sounded like Cera! But from which direction is the scream coming from?

Cue another earthshake, this one much more violent than before. They couldn't stay out there like this in the opening. "Run!" Littlefoot cried as he pushed his friends to run for it.

Another shake of the ground forced them all to run for it, cracks beginning to form under their feet as it snakes along the ground and threatening to swallow them if it opens up. The gang screams as spires beginning to erupt from the ground, anything in their path would be impaled upon their erection. Littlefoot knows now more than ever that this is the work of that Sharptooth virus from earlier today, whether he wants to believe it or not.

Little do they realize that just a few kilometers behind them Cera was catching up to them, running for her life as the virus is following her almost a mile away. Despite the distance a creature such as that could reach her rather quickly, which is a good enough reason to keep on running might she add.

With Spike taking the lead the good-hearted Spiketail suddenly came to a stop at the edge of another hill with Ducky and Littlefoot bumping into him shortly after. Running down this rather steep hill could make them lose their footing and roll down to the bottom.

"Ow!" Ducky yelps as she bumped into Spike.

"Agh!" Littlefoot yelps as he too bumps into them.

"Ooo! Careful!" Petrie warns as he looks down the hill from Spike's arms as the Spiketail is trying to balance himself from falling forward.

And with her fast speed of a Threehorn Cera catches up to them in seconds at such a blinding speed and crashes into them. "Gah!" She shouts as she bumps into the foursome.

The force of that bump was what they needed and the five of them toppled forward and down the hill, screaming as they rolled down in a pile at dizzying speeds until finally hitting ground below in a loud thud, their hit points taking little damage from the jarring impact.

"Aaaagh…" Littlefoot winces as he slowly crawls out from under the pile and clutching his hurt muzzle.

"Ow…" Ducky slowly rolls off from the top of the pile and rubs her beak. "That hurt a lot, yup yup yup…"

Littlefoot slowly turned to the others as he got up to his knees, his body a bit bruised and battered. "Is everyone all right?"

"Ooooohh…" Petrie moaned as he dragged himself out from the very bottom of the pile, almost looking like a flat pancake. "Me okay…" Petrie then slowly opened his eyes and gasped and pointed. "Littlefoot…Look!"

Littlefoot looked over his shoulder and couldn't believe his eyes. In front of them lies a huge rock formation. And not just any rock formation, but a rock formation in shape of a Longneck! Littlefoot couldn't help but smile; it's one of the landmarks that lead them to the Great Valley Square! They're on the right track!

"Guh…Get…Off of me…" A muffled voice complained. Spike recovers from his daze and looks at both directions trying to find the source of the voice. He felt movement under him and looked down, seeing that he's on top of an orange NetNavi who's currently at the moment struggling to get him off. He obeys and gets off of the Navi, who in return gets up to her hands and knees gasping for breath and spitting out dirt. "Peh…Why I oughta…"

Upon reaching that familiar voice Littlefoot immediately turns around, smiling widely from ear to ear upon seeing Cera. "Cera!"

Cera grumbled as she slowly gets up, rubbing her snout to rid of its pain. "What's the big idea of standing still like that?"

Their little reunion was ruined upon hearing another roar from the Sharptooth virus. It's getting closer! The gang trembled from another shake of the ground, what are they going to do now? They can't virus bust a virus like that by themselves! Ducky rushes over to Spike for protection from her big brother, Petrie stays on the ground close to Ducky and Cera is looking rather scared herself despite her best efforts to be brave. They had to think of something, and fast.

Thinking fast Littlefoot looks around his surroundings, there's nothing much except for the mountain that looks like a Longneck. The idea then came to him. He turned to the others as he gets up, "Quick! Behind the mountain!"

With danger creeping up on them they don't have much of a choice. Ignoring their fears and focusing on their courage the gang manage to get up and follow Littlefoot to the mountain, each one running to the other side of the mountain to hide from the virus' sight. They all gulp and shiver as their backs are pressed against the mountain wall, their hearts racing as fear is slowly overtaking them again. Littlefoot gulps as he slowly grabs his right arm and changes his hand to his buster cannon as the virus' growl and roars get closer and closer, its stomps getting louder and the tremors getting worse.

The virus has already reached the top of the hill from where the gang rolled down from. It growls and moves its head from left to right, scanning the area apparently searching for victims. It takes a step forward, the steep hill almost crumbling down from just its step. The gang all tremble as they try their best to keep quiet, hoping and praying that the virus won't find and waste them. Cera narrows her eyes a bit, itching to get out there and show this virus whose boss. But really, who is she kidding? She knows darn well that she can't even put a scratch to this virus, even Littlefoot knows that. It's all up to chance and their luck now.

The virus was going to take another step when it suddenly turned its head to the right, sniffing the air as something seems to have caught their attention. It growls lowly and turns to its right, whatever it sensed must be something really good for it to suddenly take off like that. Littlefoot peaks out and sees the virus going away to his relief. He leans against the mountain and sighs, a hand to his chest as his buster arm returns to normal. "It's gone…"

"W-Was that the Sharptooth that did all of this?" Ducky asks as she's still holding close onto Spike for protection.

"Yeah, it was…" Littlefoot turns to Cera and steps toward her. "Are you all right, Cera?"

Cera turns to Littlefoot and gives off a little glare. "Am I all right? What do you think? I got chased by that virus who we thought was deleted for a long way and then I bump into you guys and end up eating dirt again under Spike! Would someone be all right after going through all of that?"

"Okay okay, I'm sorry!" Littlefoot holds out his hands defensively to the shouting Cera, his ears sort of ringing after such an outburst.

"I can't believe that Sharptooth is still alive!" Cera continues with her outbursts. "I mean, c'mon! We saw it fall down the hole in the ground! How could it get so lucky to land in that cave I was in!"

Littlefoot couldn't find an answer for that one. It seemed that everyone has good luck today, all of his friends surviving the earthshake, including the Sharptooth's survival of falling down into the chasm. He was hoping the journey to the Great Valley Square would be safe at least, but now with this Sharptooth virus roaming around, they just can't take their time.

"I do not like this," Ducky expresses her thought. "I want to go home…I miss Sally, I do I do…"

Littlefoot sighs. "I know Ducky, we all do…"

"We better hurry to Great Valley before Sharptooth find us again." Petrie comments as he hovers above the group.

"Well we better move it!" Cera aggressively shouted to her friend, startling them all. "The longer we stay out here the more in danger we are from that Sharptooth!"

"Uhhh, guys?" The whole gang turned to Littlefoot. The Longneck Navi is standing a few steps away from them and looking up at the mountain, his eyes set on the head of the longneck mountain. He was frowning, and his eyes were widening in fear. "I think I know where that Sharptooth is heading to…"

The gang looked up to the head and took notice of the direction the head was looking at. And it's looking at the same direction the Sharptooth took off in…

* * *

"I'm sorry, kid, but I'm afraid I cannot allow anyone entry to the SciLab laboratories."

"Please let me through. I'm Dr. Homari's son, I just want to make sure if he's okay."

"Dr. Homari is all right, I assure you. But he's extremely busy along with the other top scientists with the crisis at hand and he cannot be disturbed."

"Is there anything I could help with?"

"I appreciate for your concern but Net Saviors have already been scrambled and the entire Rock Rangers Unit is on the job. Please, return to your home and stay away from any electronic appliances and the network."

A sigh. "All right…Could you at least tell Dr. Homari that his son and wife are okay?"

"I will."

"Thanks…"

Kaden turned around and began his way out of the entry park of the main building of the SciLab Garden City campus. The second he saw how damaged the building looked from the exploding electronics he became desperate to know if his dad was okay. He was stopped from entering of course by an Official, denying him entry from the seriousness of the situation and how busy the people inside the building must be. At least dad's okay, Kaden thought.

""_Well, that could've gone better.""_ Rex commented. _""But it looks like we won't gain entry into SciLab in these conditions.""_

Kaden sighs and pulls out his PET to have a conversation with his Navi. "Yeah. Even telling them I'm Dr. Homari's son won't get me inside. What else can we do now?"

""_How about sitting this one out and listen to the rules for once?""_ Rex saw how his Operator gave him a look and couldn't help but laugh. _""Hahah, just kidding, Kaden. But yeah, you know what I mean; it just seems too dangerous for us.""_

Kaden nods with a disappointed look. "I hate to admit it, but you're right. I guess we should just go hom-" A sudden explosion startles Kaden. He jumps from the sudden sound and fumbles with his PET as he almost dropped it. What the heck was that?

He looks in every direction until he spots a lot of smoke coming from a series of buildings not too far from him. Kaden gasped in horror. "Oh no!"

""_Looks like one of the SciLab's nuclear generators has blown a fuse."" _Rex informs his Operator.

"N-Nuclear generators?" Kaden sounded horrified to hear that. Usually anything that has the name 'nuclear' is horrible news.

Another small explosion occurs, startling Kaden again. More smoke rises in the sky, showing the seriousness of the explosions and the catastrophe this will cause if it continues. Kaden backs away from the buildings from which the smokes are coming from, if those blow up he'll be in a lot of trouble.

From the building there is a lot of commotion going on inside. The Official that was guarding the entrance was called into the building for whatever reason. Before long that same man comes out of the building with three more Officials, each of them holding their PETs in their hands; one red, one blue and the other green.

"All right." The man from before who was guarding the front door calls out to his other two partners, his red PET in hand. "There is no time to lose! Move!"

The other two, each of them looking about the same age as Kaden if not a year older, nod to their older supervisor. Without any further word they immediately run to the buildings housing the nuclear generators to quickly work and fix the job. The man that commanded them checked some things in his PET before moving out. As he finished he heard another small explosion, forcing him to ignore what he was doing and just move to the buildings to join his partners.

Kaden's eyes followed the man as he made his way to the buildings, a hint of worry in his face. "I hope they'll be okay…"

Rex didn't sound worried at all. _""They'll be fine. They're trained for this.""_

What happened next was probably caused by Rex jinxing it with his comment. As the man goes to open the door an explosion in the room blows the door from right off its hinges, startling the man and forcing him to back off. This explosion is followed by another small explosion that explodes the building's glass windows and then by one huge explosion. This explosion blows apart the building's walls and blows the man from right off his feet and away from the building along with the wall debris.

Kaden jumps from seeing this, fearing for the man's life. "Oh no!" Kaden rushes over to the man's aid, hoping that he's all right. As he makes it to the scene he realizes the man's under a pile of debris from the wall. His urge to help kicking in Kaden rushes over and starts to push the debris off of him, at least the ones he can move. "Sir! Are you all right?"

The man groans as he's being crushed under the debris. "I'm…All right…"

Kaden grunts as he tries to push a piece of debris off of the man. As he does so he looks at the man to check on his condition, his eyes widening a bit as he realizes the man's really hurt. "This is bad…You're bleeding…!"

"It's just a scratch…" The man grunts as he pulls an arm of his from under the debris.

"Are you kidding me? That's more than just a scratch!" Kaden stops as he takes out his PET for a moment. "Rex, I need you to call for help to the people in SciLab."

Rex nods. _""I already did. They just scrambled the medical team.""_

Kaden nods and puts away his PET as he goes back to trying to help the man, trying to push the debris off of him. "Don't worry, sir. I'll get you out from under there!"

The man grunts again in pain. He looks up at the boy and acknowledges his persistence and desire to help. After seeing him try so hard to get through him to get into SciLab to help his father and the rest of the staff. The man had a decision to make, he had a job to do as an Official, but right now he can't do anything. And to call for another Official to take his job, it would take too long…

"Kid…" The man grunts as he tries to speak from under the debris. "Forget about me…"

"What?" Kaden stops and looks down at the pinned man. "Are you kidding me? I'm not going to leave you like this!"

"L-Listen to me…" The man urges to try to tell the boy. "That explosion just now was just one of the nuclear generators that blew up from overloading. There are three others intact, two of which are being taken care of right now…I know this is asking too much, but go to the remaining generator and shut it down before it overloads…We need to shut them down to protect the plant from these overloads…Otherwise the whole nuclear power plant could explode…"

Kaden gulped upon hearing about the power plant blowing up if the generators aren't shut down. No complaints there, they have to shut them down otherwise the explosion could take a huge chunk of the city with it. Kaden shakily nods. "A-All right, but what about you?"

"I'll be fine. The medical team is on their way like your Navi said…" The man reaches into his pocket and pulls out a keycard as he holds it out to Kaden. "Use this to open the door and the jack-in port…The building is B5."

Kaden takes the keycard and nods dutifully to the man. "You can count on me." He then takes out his PET as he holds the keycard up for Rex to see it. "Let's go, Rex!"

Rex nods with a determined glare. _""Yeah!""_

With the determination he is known for Kaden runs to the nuclear generator buildings. He runs as fast as he can through the path railings to the building he was told about. He passes A1…A3…A8…B1…Ah-ha! B5! Kaden slides the keycard in the door's card reader and unlocks the door with a beep. He quickly opens it and steps inside, a big two story building, above him a catwalk where people walk across to check on the motors and machines in the second floor. Impressed with the inside, Kaden whistles. "Wow, this is pretty big…"

""_Kaden."" _Rex calls out to his Operator. _""There's the machine; right in front of you.""_

Kaden looks ahead of himself and notices the machine, although he was expecting something much smaller. The actual thing takes up two floors and it hums loudly as Kaden walks closer to it. He doesn't have time to be impressed; he has to shut this down! Holding out the keycard he slides it into the card reader next to the jack-in port and its metal casing slips open, revealing the jack-in port inside.

Knowing what must be done Kaden takes out his PET, slides down its handle and stretches out the jack-in cable to the side, plugging the cable into the port without hesitation. "Jack in! Rex! Power up!"

Rex uploads from the PET and into the NuclearFrame. After touching down he takes a few steps forward and looks around, seeing four areas of the NuclearFrame side by side with each other, each one separated from one another by an infinite abyss. From the frame Rex is standing on there is one frame to his left and two frames to his right, the rightmost frame is unfortunately broken and engulfed in flames. No doubt that's the frame of the generator that blew up a little while ago.

"Wow, this is some complex security." Rex comments as he takes more steps forward and spots the actual frame of his, seeing voltage inputs here and there with static of electricity blocking his path. Rex looks at his voltage securities and looks over to the other frames, seeing the same security measures. Rex looks up to speak with his Operator, "Looks like we have to get technical to get through here."

"But I don't know a thing about voltage or anything like that!" Kaden complains as he's already panicking. "How the heck are we going to get through all this?"

"_We can help!"_

That voice came from Rex's left. He turns to his left to face the frame from next door and spots a blue transport beam touching down on it. The Navi that touched down was a Sharptooth Generation Navi of the T-Rex series; A blue Navi with a darker shade of blue from mouth to tail and a couple of red eyes. This Navi has a pair of small dark blue shoulder pads, elbow pads and knees pads with gauntlet-like armor around his arms from the elbow down. He has a light-blue belt around his waist and dark blue legging-like armor around his legs from the knee down. His three fingers and toes on each hand and foot are armed with razor sharp claws and his mouth is armed with razor sharp teeth and fangs. On his chest he dons his Navi crest, a red circle with a sharp tooth in the middle.

"_It's quite easy when you get the hang of it!"_

Rex turns to his right as he hears another voice and a green transport beam touching down on the frame to his right. This Navi is from the Sharptooth Generation as well, from the Fast Biter series; a green Navi with blue stripes going down from the back of his neck to his tail. He has dark green shoulder pads and knee pads along with a blue legging-like armor from his knee down. He has a blue belt around his waist, a dark green skin tight beige chest plating and dark green bulky gloves on his arms, similar to Littlefoot's. His three fingers on each hand are armed with razor sharp claws and two of his three toes on each foot are armed with the same claws with the exception of one toe which his armed with a razor-sharp sickle shaped claw. On his chest resides his Navi crest, a blue circle with a green letter Y in the middle.

"Whoa, two Sharpteeth!" Rex exclaims upon seeing the two of them.

"Hah, you sure seem excited." The Fast Biter comments as he sees Rex's rather excited face.

"So you're the Sharptooth Dr. Homari told us about." The T-Rex Navi commented, sounding happy himself to see such a rare sight. "With wings and everything. Too cool!"

Rex grins and looks up to talk to his Operator. "Hahah, they're quite nice!"

Kaden couldn't help but grin in excitement. "Isn't this exciting, Rex? The two of us working together with two actual Net Police NetNavis! This is awesome!"

Rex nods. "Sure is!"

"All right," The Fast Biter starts. "Time to get to work on these generators."

Rex turns around and looks at the two newcomers. "Roger. My name is Rex. I'm replacing the Official that had to take care of this generator."

"Yeah, we were told by you in an email from him." The T-Rex Navi adds with a smile. "Pleased to meet ya, Rex. My name's Chomper."

"And my name's Yu." The Fast Biter introduces himself as well. "Not to be confused with the word 'you'."

Rex couldn't help but laugh at Yu's last statement; so these two are called Chomper and Yu, two Navi members from the Net Police, the ones responsible to keep the network safe from net criminals and net crimes. Rex, Chomper and Yu turn to their respective frames and they make their way into it, ready to get to work. "Listen to me, Rex." Yu begins as he makes his way to his first voltage door. "On each of these doors there is a diagram of a complete circuitry with everything from resistors to capacitors depending on its complexity."

Rex nods as he listens to the explanation from Yu on how to get through the security doors. "Depending on the level of the security door it'll ask you for the drop of voltage in each of the capacitors. All you have to do is make the calculations and input the correct digits."

"Uh, right." Rex looks at the first security door's circuit diagram. According to the diagram the circuit is giving off a voltage of 25 and has a capacitor of .47 microfarad.

"Uhhh…" Kaden scratches his head as he's seeing the problem through his PET screen.

"Any ideas, Kaden?" Rex asks as he too is scratching his head.

"Don't ask me, I don't have a clue…"

Noticing Rex is having trouble Chomper decides to give him a hand. "You know," Chomper starts as he looks over to Rex as he's going through the security door on his side. "To find the voltage drop in a capacitor, all you have to do is divide the value of the total capacitance with the value of the capacitor you're using. Then all you have to do is multiply that with the voltage of the circuitry and there you have your answer! That's not too hard."

Kaden stares blankly into his PET, he didn't get anything what that Navi just said. He replies with a chuckle as he scratches his head. "Uhhh yeah, what he said. All right, let's move, Rex."

Rex slightly narrows his eyes and looks up. "You didn't understand a single thing he said, did you?"

"Nope!"

Chomper couldn't help but laugh. "Hahah! All right, I'll follow you through the procedures." He waits until Rex faces the door and opens up a program to calculate. "All right, to find the total capacitance you have to divide every capacitor in the circuitry by one and then add them all up into one big number, and then divide all of that by one." He sees Rex wince a bit from the amount of calculating he has to do, which Chomper couldn't help but giggle at his expense. "Don't worry, from what I can see from up here you only have one capacitor in that circuitry. This is lucky, since that's your total capacitance already. Now, divide that with the same number."

Rex nods and does so in his calculating program, the results being 1. From his part of the frame he could see Rex has his number calculated. "All right, now multiply that by the voltage the circuitry is having."

Rex does so. In the program he multiplies 1 by 25, the results being the obvious: 25. "And there's your drop of voltage in that capacitor." Chomper declares in a finale way, even doing a humorous bow someone would usually do at the end of their show.

Rex smiles a bit from Chomper's attitude and inputs the number twenty five in the security door and with a correct ding the door opens, leading the way deeper inside. "All right!" Rex cheers as he pumps his left arm in triumph.

"Way to go!" Kaden cheers. "So that's it, huh? That didn't seem so tough."

"Yeah, it was a bit simple once you get the hang of it." Rex turns to Chomper at the other frame and waves his hand. "Thanks for the tutorial, Chomper!"

Chomper smiles and waves back at him, but then he sees something that terribly alarms him and points at Rex. "Rex! Look out!"

"Huh?" Rex turns and screams as three viruses jump at him from behind the opened security door. The viruses pounce and take Rex down to the ground, the three of them on top of him and ready to shred their teeth into him and take him out. As they chirped for the kill they were suddenly struck by something and they go flying off of him and down to the abyss below, being deleted eventually.

"So that's how these generators are being overloaded." Yu comments as he lowers his buster cannon, barely managing to save Rex by shooting at the viruses with deadly accuracy. "Viruses from the GardenArea, they must've been spooked into these machines from whatever virus created such a mess in the first place."

Chomper gasped from Yu's realization and quickly turns to his security door and completes his puzzle as quickly as he could. The moment he completed it he jumped back and aimed at the opening door with his buster cannon, he too spotting viruses behind the door and lunging at him at sight. "Sorry about this." Chomper apologizes to the viruses before opening fire and deleting them all. He sighs and lowers his buster. "I guess you're right, Yu." He looks over to Rex and Yu on the other frames. "Be careful on the inside."

Yu nods to his partner and walks deeper into his frame. Meanwhile Rex sighs in relief and slowly gets up, his chest suffered a bit of a slash injury from the viruses' razor sharp claws, but he'll live. "All the viruses being spooked into these generators because of that virus…" Rex looks up to continue speaking with his Operator. "Sounds really it's really dangerous deeper inside."

"That virus scared all of these viruses into these private servers…" Kaden comments as he feels sorry for the viruses. "We always delete them when we see them, but they're living beings just like you if they run for their lives from a danger that's bigger than them…"

"I know…It really makes you think differently of them…"

Kaden bows his head a bit, but then the hum of the generator in his room makes him snap into reality. "A-Anyway, let's leave that for later. Right now we have a generator to shut down!"

Rex nods in agreement, they wasted enough time as it is. "Yeah."

As they resume on their mission there are Navis doing missions of their own in the network. Navis from Net Saviors are roaming around collecting stray data and searching for any surviving Navis. It's a long and tiring mission, but it's something that must be done.

Booster rams his fist into a spire, cracking it from its base and toppling it down over a hole on the ground and creating a quick bridge to cross the gap. "Okay, everyone cross the bridge now!" He cries to the stranded Navis on the other side. "Come over to this side and follow the Net Savior Navis and they'll lead you all to safety!"

As the Navis crossed the gap Booster couldn't help but smile. He's always happy to help others in need and always gets a sense of pride upon doing so. Despite his large size and intimidating look he has a big heart and is quite gentle. There's nothing more that he likes to do than helping others in need.

"You seem to be enjoying yourself." Grayscale comments as she approaches Booster from behind.

"Heheh, you could say that." He responds as he looks over his shoulder down at Grayscale.

Grayscale shakes her head with a rather amused smirk. "There's nothing you like doing more, huh?"

Booster turns to her with a giggle. "Well, it is my job to protect and help others. It's kind of why my Operator and I wanted to join Net Saviors."

"Typical…" Grayscale turned her head away to look at the surviving Navis being led to a safe place. It kind of surprised her at how many Navis survived such a disaster. She wasn't expecting any survivors at all. A very surprising day this turned out to be.

She turned her head to one side upon hearing a slight commotion. A Navi from the Duckbill series has just dropped to her knees, her body beginning to get fuzzy as her frame can't hold up much longer. She's slowly being deleted from the tiresome journey…

"Oh no!" Booster exclaimed. He pushed himself through the crowd of surviving Navis toward the unfortunate Duckbill Navi. He makes it to her and kneels down next to her, holding his hand out to keep her from falling to the ground. "Hang on! Don't go! You're almost there!" Booster lifted his head to one of the Net Savior Navis close by. "We need a recovery chip, hurry!"

As Grayscale watched from where she was standing she couldn't help but smirk to herself, a smirk that nobody could see. As she watched the Navi slowly deleting she just felt pleasure from seeing the Navi in agony, she always enjoyed seeing this. Oh how she hates the Leaf-Eater Generation, oh how she wishes she could delete them all. To make them pay for what they have done to her and Kiraa…

"Hang on…!" Booster urged to the Navi, but it was too late. Just as he finished telling her to hang on the Navi slowly began to disappear, disintegrating into particles of data into nothingness. Booster stares where the Navi was in disbelief, his eyes widen and his hands just frozen there in place. The Navis who saw the deletion couldn't help but feel sorry for her and bow their heads in sadness.

All of them except for Grayscale though. She turns around and walks away from the scene with a rather pleased smile on her face. One less Leaf-Eater to worry about, she thought. She stopped and looked back for a moment to Booster, the friendly Ankylosaurus series NetNavi and her preferred partner for missions. Grayscale couldn't put her claw on it but she felt something for this one, a friendly attraction to him. Grayscale frowned, no, impossible; Booster is just a partner, not a friend. It's just a professional relationship, nothing more nothing less, just a partner, not a friend.

Booster sighed sadly as he bowed his head with his eyes closed. "Another one…" He lifted his head and held out his hand to scan the remained data of the deleted Navi. The Navi turned out to only be about a year old since two months ago and belongs to an 8th grader, no doubt someone who was eagered to be in the opening of the Great Valley Square…

Booster couldn't help but to close his eyes sharply, the strong emotion starting to show as tears were beginning to leak from his closed eyes. He despises seeing these kinds of things. To see others die in front of him, the feeling of being useless…

"Kiraa…" Grayscale calls to her Operator as she keeps on moving away from the scene. "The scene here is being taken care of. Are we really needed here?"

In the real world Kiraa is tinkering with one of the damaged machines trying to get it to work. "We have our orders, Grayscale. You are to patrol and secure the area while I'm needed here helping with the repairs."

"It's such a bore." Grayscale comments as she stops and looks out to the distant ruined network. "No viruses in the area and the MegaVirus hasn't shown its face since the network was split in two. Plus being heavily surrounded by Leaf-Eaters, I can't stand it here anymore…"

"You'll make it through as usual…" Kiraa lowers her electrical screwdriver she was using and tries turning on the machine she was working on. The machine hums to life but then it just dies down as fast as it came on, much to her dismay. She sighs heavily as she drops the screwdriver to the ground from her hand, wondering what else is wrong with this thing. It can't be a blown fuse, she checked the machine personally every nook and cranny she could look into.

She hears a beep coming from her PET. With a sigh she grabs her PET and looks into the screen rather annoyed. "I told you we cannot leave our posts…"

"It wasn't me." Grayscale informs with a shake of her head. "It appears you received an email from the Net Police out front."

Kiraa arches an eyebrow. An email from the Net Police? They're not in her branch of profession, what are they contacting her for? She presses some buttons on her PET and opens up her emails, opening the one she just received. The contents of the email was…Very interesting right around the end.

_Net Police Report:_

_Officer Ret_

_NetNavi: Chomper_

_ID # 341D_

_An accident occurred in front of the Nuclear Generator Warehouses, resulting in one injury of a fellow Net Police, ID # 210A. He has notified us of a replacement he sent to aid us in shutting down the generators. Replacement identified as Kaden Homari and his Sharptooth Generation NetNavi, Rex. Rex has passed registration and administration and is on green access. Picture of Operator and NetNavi included in this message as part of the report._

_Report is to be verified before archived._

Granted, Kiraa isn't part of the Net Police branch, but it is common procedure for some reports to go through Net Savior verification before archived; which in this case Kiraa was chosen.

Upon seeing the pictures Kiraa smirked to herself; the kid from the train station and his NetNavi, what are the odds? This is lucky so to speak, when such an event happens, it's expected for a Net Savior to personally inspect the person in question and make sure they're doing their job. "Grayscale, looks like we are needed somewhere else…"

* * *

The streets of Garden City are flowing with life, people busy minding their own repairs of the damages done in the disaster. Friends, family, strangers, everyone pitches in to bring Garden City back to its former glory before the network disaster. Sadly there have been many injuries, even casualties.

The once popular and famous Garden City Shopping Mall now lies in ruins, its majestic three floors of shops and departments are now riddled with broken glass, items and even burned materials and walls from fire caused by the network breakdown. The busy water docks of Garden City are now abandoned of ships as they repair the broken guidance systems. It truly was a tremendous disaster, and it will take them months, maybe even years, to restore everything the way it was.

Jason looked around as he kept on moving down the street, his sneakers crunching with every step he takes as he walks over broken glass littered thorough the ground. He's still unable to believe at how bad this day has been, how much damage has happened, how many people were hurt, lost…

He looks to his right to see a damaged elementary school. This is the same school he and Kaden went to, the same school where they met. It was a beautiful school with the walls painted with the children's favorite characters and colorful pictures and decorations in the classrooms. But, looking at it now, it's all ruined thanks to exploding machinery and computers. Seeing burn marks on the edges of the windows and walls, it looks like the building had caught fire. Jason bowed his head in sadness to see such memories in ruins thanks to some kind of mega virus roaming around and destroying the network.

He pushed away the painful view of his old school and takes off in a dash, he decided to meet with his friends at the usual place and he's already running a bit late. He knows they just want to talk to him about his mother's passing, to give their condolences and to be there for him. As he thought of this Jason couldn't help but smile to himself, he's so lucky to have such caring friends in his life, he really couldn't ask for any better friends. They all have been so kind and caring to him, always there to help him and keep his spirit up during the bad times. He needs them now more than ever, and he really thanks them for taking time to be there for him during these horrible times.

"Littlefoot…" Jason whispers to himself as he thinks back to his NetNavi. "Please be okay in the network…I don't want to lose you too…" Jason closed his eyes as he felt a tear going down his cheek. Littlefoot means a lot to him, and after losing his mother he doesn't want to lose him either. He had him since the 4th grade and they became fast friends, they went through a lot together and are practically like brothers. Jason sighs to try to calm down, Littlefoot can take care of himself, he's pretty strong and has a strong heart to follow, he'll be all right, he just has to believe in his Navi.

He continues running down the street, passing by houses and stores and noticing their damages along the way. He takes a left on a street and runs down the sidewalk until he stops in front of a two-story home. This is Stephen and Sally's home, just a few minute walk from Jason's home. Jason takes a deep breath and walks around the house to the backyard as he gets ready to face his friends. He looks up as he walks to the backyard to see the big tree with the tree house perched on it. The whole gang loves this tree; they've climbed all over this tree when they used to play together when they were little around here, before they had their own PETs and such. Those were the good ol' days, how Kaden used to climb to the very top and pretend to be Tarzan, how Sally used to stay below laughing and such seeing them have fun on the tree. She even took a picture of them all up on the tree once. When they all had received their PETs Sally then shared the picture with all of them in their PETs, each of them holding a copy of it as a sign of their friendship.

Jason moved his eyes to the tree house as it resides on the branches of the giant tree. It may not look like much from outside, but inside the tree house is very tough. The gang managed to fit in a family size sofa in it and a couple of chairs to sit on. Stephen and Silus took it upon themselves to decorate its walls with posters of their favorite videogames and television shows. A real club house; and only they have access to it.

With nothing holding him back Jason walks to the tree and looks up to the tree house, wondering if the others are in there. He looks at the ladder made of simple wood planks and starts climbing, slowly but surely just in case these old planks have gotten soft along the years, but as expected they hold on to his weight. He slowly reaches the tree house and stops all of a sudden, hearing voices inside the tree house.

"Do you think Jason is all right?" Silus' voice.

"I wouldn't be surprised if we won't hear from him for a month." That tone of voice, Malory. "I mean, he just lost his mom after all."

"He's probably all broken up in his room, poor guy…" Stephen's voice. "It's still hard to believe that she's gone…"

"Yeah…" Silus responds with a nod as he sits in one of the chairs in the tree house. "She saw a very good person…The thought that she's gone, it's just…Painful…"

"And you can imagine just how painful it is for Jason right now." Malory adds as she's standing by one of the tree house's windows with her arms crossed and her back resting against the wall. "And I can relate to his pain. I was the same when Cera was deleted a few months ago."

"Oh yeah…" Silus recalls that day. "I remember that day. You practically became a monster. You didn't allow anyone to come close to you."

"Yeah, I became a-What?" Malory reacted angrily toward at Silus for describing her status like that. "Watch what you say, Silus! Because I'll…"

"Please, you two, not now…" Stephen warns them before the usual starts. Silus and Malory shoot a glance at Stephen and then turn their heads to the direction Stephen's looking at, their eyes spotting Sally. She hasn't spoken a word since they have arrived at the tree house as she's sitting on the sofa, her eyes at a loss as she looks out the closest window of the tree house. With the exception of Jason Sally is the one suffering the most about Jason's mother's passing. They recall how Sally was very close to Jason's mother; they would talk about things and even spend time together with activities such as baking cookies and other sweets for parties and birthdays. She was like Sally's second mother.

Silus gives off a sad sigh as his shoulders sag. "It's been a horrible day…" He comments after a second of silence. "First our Navis are lost in the network, and then we hear about Jason's mother's death…Talk about a day with bad luck running amok…"

Malory sighs in defeat as she uncrosses her arms. "Well, we can't stand around like this all day…What happened today it happened, what we have to figure out now is what are we going to do now…Our Navis are lost in the network and we're here moping around."

Jason was still there hanging on to the ladder listening in to his friends' conversation and began to think. Malory had a point, they have done nothing but moping around feeling sorry for him and grieving over his mother. And while it's true they can't do anything about what happened they can work together to get through it and do something about what's going on. Help in restoring the city, help in restoring the network, and help finding their Navis. He recalls an email from Kaden a few hours ago about him going off to find their Navis in the ruined network.

Kaden…He's always off doing things by himself to help others disregarding his own safety...

Jason gives it some thought. Perhaps today they must follow in his rather reckless example and do the same. "What are we going to do now…?" Jason repeats to himself Malory's words. He knows what they can do now. With a smile Jason continues up on the rest of the way up the ladder and peaks his head up through the opening of the tree house. "I have an idea on what we should do."

The sudden surprise of hearing Jason's voice makes everyone in the room to abruptly turn to the doorway of the tree house, all of them seeing Jason as he slowly gets up from the ladder and stand there by the doorway. "Jason!" Silus exclaims.

"That was a quick recovery." Malory jokes as she sees Jason's rather smiling face. "Are you okay?"

Jason nods in response. "Yeah, I'm all right."

"You sure?" Stephen asks just to make sure and receives a nod from Jason in response.

Jason sees Sally on the sofa looking at him rather absently, she must be thinking about his mother. He's aware of the close friendship she used to have with his mother, boy does he know. Of all his friends Sally's the one he sees very frequently. "Sally…" He sees how the girl is trying to hold back tears, obviously still feeling horrible about his mother's passing. Jason smiles at her and walks over to her, placing his hand on her shoulder. "C'mon Sally, cheer up…"

Sally looks up at Jason and tries her best to shed a smile, but even that she's finding a bit hard to do. "I'm very sorry about your mom…" She says between sniffles.

Jason smiles warmly to her, nodding in understanding. "Thanks…" He then stands up straight while looking down at her. "C'mon, we won't be able to do this without you."

Malory arches an eyebrow, not understanding what Jason is referring to. "Do what? What are you talking about?"

Jason turns to the others to answer. "Like you said, we can't stand around and mope around. You guys told me that Kaden is out there to help find our Navis, right? Well I say we get out there and help him do the same!"

Silus frowns, not sure about the sound of that idea. "But Jason, the network is off limits right now and we can't much without our Net Navis to locate them, let alone find them."

"Well actually, I think we can do something after all."

"Huh?" Stephen scratches his head, confused about what Jason is talking about. "I'm afraid you're hanging out with Kaden a bit too much, Jason. The network was reported that it broke in two and any communication between two objects that are separated by that giant hole is impossible. It'll be nearly impossible for us to even find a place to jack in, and we don't even know if our Navis are still alive and on which end they are."

"That's not quite true, Stephen." Jason responds with a wag of his finger.

Stephen and Silus look at each other. Not quite true? Jason must really be hanging out with Kaden a bit too much for him to think like that. First, let's look at the situation. The network has been split in two, so any kind of communication from object to the other that's separated by the crater is downright impossible to communicate. Second, anything that falls into that hole is gone forever. Third, viruses are roaming about in there, so without battle chips they can be easily overwhelmed. And fourth, even if they are alive, they won't be allowed to jack in at all. So what is Jason referring to?

"I think I know what Jason is referring to," Malory speaks as she tries to put together Jason's words. "Obviously the crater won't make it easy to find them, but there is one place where communications are still online. It was even mentioned in the E-News email chain we all received. The Great Valley Square is still intact and communications to and from there are still open."

Silus blinks, still not getting it. "So?"

"He means that…" Sally speaks out for the first time since they've gotten to the tree house. "If our Navis are still alive…Then they thought about going to the Great Valley Square!" And for the first time today Sally smiled in relief. "Of course! They must be heading there!"

"Yeah!" Jason adds with a grin. "I'm pretty sure that's where Kaden went. To jack into the Great Valley Square and search for them from there!"

Silus gave a little laugh as he scratched the back of his head, feeling a bit dumb for not thinking of it sooner. "Hahah, leave it to Jason to think of everything. Boy, do we feel dumb." Stephen gave Silus a look as he too chuckled; a bit embarrassed that Silus included him in that statement although it is quite true.

"It's worth a try." Malory admits with a shrug. "That is, if they'll let us jack in anyway."

"I'm pretty sure they'll let us." Sally responds as she took out her PET and began checking into the news in it. "They just gave the public the green light to jack into their server in SciLabs to check for their Navis in the Great Valley Square. I'm sure we'll find them there!"

Jason felt happy to see their friends with hope again. It feels great to see them smile again, to be with them and support each other. It's like Rooter said, he needs his friends and they need him. "All right," Jason starts as he makes his way to the tree house opening. "To SciLab!"

Stephen gasped upon remembering something and quickly turned and held out his hand to Jason. "Jason! Wait!" But it was too late. The moment Jason set foot on the outer edge of the tree house the plank under his foot broke off and down Jason fell. He lands hard on the ground below at the base tree basically face-first, how lucky for him that the height wasn't life-threatening, just a fall that would ache for a couple of days.

"Aaagh…" Jason slowly gets up to his knees clutching his face with one hand, trembling from the agony of the fall. "I'm…Okay…" He painfully declares loud enough for his friends above to hear.

Stephen made a groan and slapped the palm of his hand to his face with one eye closed, wincing from how painful that must've been. How could he have forgotten to tell Jason that he has been meaning to reinforce those old planks?

"Cyber Claw!"

Rex slashes through two lunging viruses, cutting them in half and deleting them rather easily. Most of the viruses he's coming up against are from the Garden Area network. Just like Yu said, they must've been spooked into these networks from that giant Sharptooth virus. It is now glaringly obvious that the amount of viruses in these machines are overloading them, resulting in such explosions. They have to hurry and shut down the generators, and fast!

Rex runs through the NuclearFrame as fast as he can. He runs down a ramp and takes a left past one of the power columns of the frames but stops upon hearing a screech and turns to his right to a ledge about ten feet above him to spot three small viruses looking down at him. These small viruses have thin bodies and are about three feet in length, they are standing upright and on their three toes and they have sharp-looking claws on their five fingers. These viruses are named Eoraptors, short for Electro-Raptors as scientists from SciLab call them for their preference in invading machines that produce massive electrical discharges. Other than their small sizes they can be easily distinguished by their yellow eyes and dark yellow skin and stripes resembling lightning all over the back of their necks and backs. These viruses are dangerous for their speed and electric attacks.

Rex takes a step back as the Eoraptor viruses screech and jump from pillar to pillar, their goal to attack the Navi in sight. Rex leaps and swings his claws out, slashing one of them in half with his claws and deleting it. Despite their speed their hit points are pathetic, easy to kill in one shot.

"Rex! They're coming at you from behind!" Kaden warns his Navi as he monitors the battle through the PET. Rex looks over his shoulder and sees the two remaining viruses jumping at him with electrical discharge forming in their mouths, no doubt going for an electric bite. Flapping his wings hard enough Rex maneuvers his body for a back flip in mid-air, the viruses fly under him as he avoids them. Still in the maneuver Rex changes his arm to the buster and takes aim, shooting them down and deleting them.

Rex lands on his feet on the ground and turns around, continuing on his way into the frame and stopping in front of the second security door. He looks at the circuitry in the diagram and thinks. A circuit receiving 25 volts with two capacitors, one being 4 microfarads and the other being 2 microfarads.

"All right, just like the last one." Kaden comments.

"Yeah, but this one has two capacitors." Rex observes as he looks at the diagram. "We're gonna have to input two voltage drops for each one."

Kaden thinks back to Chomper's tutorial back on the first security door. "So we just have to divide the number 1 by each capacitor separately then add them together to divide the number 1 again with that total to get our total capacitance, right?"

Rex nods in agreement. "I think that's how we solved the first one."

"Okay then, let's give it a whirl."

Rex agrees with his Operator and opens his calculating program. He looks at the diagram to check the capacitors before starting on the problem solving along with Kaden. According to his calculations the total capacitance is 1.33, and now to divide that by the first capacitor and then multiply it with the voltage and he should have the voltage drop in the first capacitor. 8.3 volts.

Rex looks at the second one and continues with dividing the total capacitance with the second capacitor, 2 microfarads, and multiplying it with the voltage, 25. The result comes as 16.6 volts.

_DING!_

The two answers turn out to be correct upon hearing the ding and then the door opens, allowing them to continue. Kaden grins to himself and pumps his arms in victory. "All right! We did it!"

Rex smiles as the door is now wide open, granting him entrance deeper into the frame. "Good job, Kaden! We're one step closer to the generator's main controls."

"And you better hurry!" Kaden exclaims, sounding awfully worried about something. "The generator seems to be acting up, its humming nose is getting louder and louder. You gotta hurry and shut this generator off before it explodes!"

"I'm on it!" Rex didn't waste any more time. He ran through the opened door and made his way to the other side as fast as he could. He hears screeches from viruses and prepared himself. From the shadows three Eoraptor viruses came out, looking for meat. Along with them four small flying viruses swarm out from behind them and take to the sky, BluntBeaks!

"Aw great, flying types." Rex growls as he changes his arm to a buster and takes aim to the flying ones. He shoots as fast as he can but the flying viruses zig this way and zags that way, the shots completely missing them. If Rex's buster would've had some speed upgrades this could've been easier. He jumps back to avoid one of their tackles and jumps to the left when one of the Eoraptor viruses shoots a spark of electricity at him. Rex drops to the ground and dodge rolls out of the way of another BluntBeak attacking him from above and quickly turns his buster to the Eoraptors, shooting at them with great accuracy. Seeing the attack coming the Eoraptor viruses run out of the way, but one of them got caught in the blast and takes the shot dead-on, blown away and deleted.

Rex looks up upon hearing screeches and gasps to see the four BluntBeaks launching themselves right at him. The viruses hold up their tails and shoot at the Navi with their tail's feathers, each of them extremely pointy to the touch. Rex jumps out of the way to dodge them in a back flip, holding out his hand and holding himself up in a hand-stand to quickly take aim and shoot at the oncoming Eoraptor viruses. This quick move helps in nail one of them with a shot, deleting it to relief him of some stress, but the BluntBeaks are still coming and shooting their feathers at him. Rex pushes himself up into the air, gracefully dodging the feathers and propelling himself up. He flips once in the air and takes aim with his buster gun at the flying viruses, opening fire on them as fast as he could. But no matter how much he shot the flying viruses just moved out of the way much to Rex's frustration.

"Argh! They're just way too fast!" Rex complains to Kaden as he continues shooting with his buster cannon, none of the shots hitting their targets. He lands on the ground but drops to his knees when an electric attack from the remaining Eoraptor virus nails him to his back, frying him a bit and making his joints numb. "Aaargh!"

"Ah! Hang in there, Rex!" Kaden digs into his battle chip holster around his wrist to find a suitable battle chip to help his Navi with. Cannon? Nope, firing rate isn't fast enough. Mini Bomb? No, explosion range isn't big enough to be effective against flying viruses. Kaden continues browsing his chips until he finds the battle chip Sally gave him, a chip with Ducky's picture on it. Kaden still hasn't figured out what this chip is for. Is it to give Rex an add-on from Ducky or something? Kaden grunts and looks back into his PET as he just heard Rex scream in pain. A BluntBeak virus just slammed into him with its beak and got shocked again by the Eoraptor.

"Don't give up!" Kaden cries to his Navi, he can't stand there wondering about the chip. "Here we go! Ducky, code D! Battle chip in!" He jams the battle chip into his PET to download it to his Navi. "Download!"

Rex grunted as he slowly gets up to his knees, how can he take down such fast viruses? He hears his Operator jam a battle chip in to help him and waits for the data to come to him. However, instead of gaining a weapon four giant cubes form in front of him and materializes something inside of them. Rex arches an eyebrow, what the heck did he download?

The answer soon came to him as the cubes disappeared and revealed someone standing in front of him. A slightly tanned green three foot tall Navi. "What the?" Rex gets up to his feet, surprised to see who it is. "Ducky?"

Indeed, it is Ducky. But how did she get here? Ducky stands there in front of Rex to protect him from the viruses as they come at them. She jumps to the side to avoid a bite from the Eoraptor and then she held out her hand to it. Just then a cube formed in front of her hand and materialized some kind of prehistoric looking fish. She then slightly pushed her hand forward and the fish opened its mouth and sprayed a powerful water cannon to the virus, completely covering the virus and pushing it against the wall, just crushing it into the wall with its powerful pressure and crushing it. The virus didn't stood a chance as it disintegrated, deleted.

The BluntBeaks shifted their attention and dived for the Swimmer, their tails ready to shoot their feathers at her. Ducky looked up and took a deep breath, her stomach enlarging as she took in that deep breath of air. When she reached full capacity she let it all out in the form of bubbles. She blew bubbles from her mouth and up to the viruses. It all seemed innocent and harmless but this thought sealed the viruses' fate as they flew right into the bubbles and, like a fish caught in a net, were caught inside the bubbles, adding to their horror that their insides were full of water. The viruses struggled to break out of it, but the bubbles just wouldn't pop, they were trapped. It took a few seconds but the bubbles soon popped, even the viruses inside popped along with them as if they were made of bubbles themselves. Just like that, one Swimmer totally owned them all.

"…Whoa…" Rex was just stunned. He never knew Ducky could've done such attacks and take out those viruses with ease. Ducky turns to Rex with her usual carefree smile and inhales a bit. She then lets it all out in a gentle stream of water, soaking Rex to the bone in a gentle shower. Rex laughs as he covers his face from the water, his feathers drooping down over his face from getting soaked. "Hahahah, all right Ducky, stop it. I'm glad to see you too. Hahahah!"

Kaden watched in awe as that water spray just restored the hit points Rex lost during his struggle against these viruses. He's just stunned on the effects of this chip. "Incredible…" And Sally said she made this chip all by herself?

Ducky giggled a bit before disintegrating into particles and disappearing, so that wasn't the real Ducky after all but a copy image from the battle chip. Rex shook himself dry and looked up. "Hahah, what the heck was that, Kaden?"

"It was the battle chip Sally gave me." Kaden responds to his Navi. "I don't really know how she did it but it looks like it summons a copy image of Ducky to help you out in battles. It's like a summon from the Final Fantasy videogames!"

"Wow. That's an incredible battle chip!" Suddenly the NuclearFrame began to shake a bit, almost tripping Rex down to the ground. Seems like this generator is growing unstable by the second, he has to hurry!

"Agh!" Kaden covers his face as a pipe of the generator blows a gasket and blows off some steam, almost burning him. "Rex, hurry!"

"Roger!" Rex turns and runs, with his hit points replenished he's now at full strength and at full speed. He quickly dashes to the security door and stops in front of it, quickly opening the calculating program as he comes to a stop and looks at the circuit in the diagram. 50 voltage circling in the circuitry with three capacitors, 2 microfarads, 5 microfarads and 7 microfarads.

Rex quickly gets to work. Total capacitance: 1.18 microfarads.

Drop of voltage in the first capacitor: 29.5 volts.

Drop of voltage in the second capacitor: 11.8 volts.

Drop of voltage in the third capacitor: 8.43 volts.

_DING!_

The security door flies open and Rex quickly runs inside. The room inside is tremendously huge. The walls are basically a huge circuit with a bunch of capacitors and resistors riddling the entire thing, even an electric technician would have a horrible time trying to decipher this one. Rex gasped in horror to see a huge voltage input device in front of him in the middle of the room. He can't believe what he has to do…

"I…" Rex comments in horror as he walks to the device. "I got to decipher this huge circuitry too?"

Kaden was shocked to learn this too. "The security doors were time consuming enough as simple as they were! There's no way we can do this in time!" Kaden screamed in surprise as another gasket blows up and blows steam practically in his face. He tries to back away from the generator but the jack-in cable can only stretch so far.

"We don't have time!" Rex shouts in dismay.

"Don't worry about it, we can handle this."

Rex was caught by surprise to hear another person's voice. He looks around to try to find who said that, but the entire room is empty. Suddenly two teleport beams zap into the room, transferring two Navis right in front of him. Upon seeing who they were Rex sports a smile of relief. "Chomper! Yu!"

"Missed us?" Yu jokes with a smile. "Figured you couldn't do this huge one by yourself."

Rex smiles a bit, that's true, he's nowhere near as experienced and strong as they are to handle such a challenge. Chomper walks up to Rex with a very friendly smile and confident glare. "This one's easy! Just leave it to us!"

Chomper and Yu look at each other with a nod and turn around to face the walls. Holding their hands out to the walls their eyes and hand begin to glow a gentle green glow as they scan and calculate the entire room in a matter of seconds, built-in programs of circuitry and electronics in their respective PETs working to calculate the problem. When they finished they turn to each other and hold their hand out to each other, a cube of data forming in front of their hands and uniting with the answers to further calculate the problem. In seconds the answer is calculated and shows up in the voltage input device: A huge and solid number of 520 volts.

_DING!_

The entire room flashes and dies down in power. Just then in the real world the generator slowly dies down and turns itself off. The steams blowing from the broken gaskets slowly dissipate until it's safe to get closer to the generator. With the generator cooled down and off, this warehouse and the machine are safe from blowing up. Kaden sighs in relief; they have just saved the city from the risk of being blown up.

"There!" Chomper happily turns to Rex with a smile. "See? Told ya it was easy!"

"Easy for you say!" Rex retaliates with a chuckle. "Thanks a lot, you two."

Yu turns to Rex with a friendly smirk. "Heheh, don't mention it. We should be thanking you for taking our partner's place and helping us out. If it wasn't for your help this generator would've been lost."

"We're always happy to lend a hand!" Kaden declares with a grin. "You can always count on us!"

Yu laughs. "Hahah, all right then. I guess we can count on you to jack out and make a thorough check of the warehouse you're in while you're at it just to make sure. Right?"

Rex nods. "You bet!"

Yu nods in return. "Good. Well, we're out." He looks over at Chomper. "Let's go, Chomper."

Chomper nods as Yu jacks out. "Okay!" Before he goes he turns to Rex. "It was great meeting you, Mr. Rex! Hope I'll get to see you again!" And with that he jacks out as well.

Rex couldn't help but smile at how friendly those two were. He would really like to meet them again someday. "All right, Rex. Let's jack out!" Kaden declares. Rex nods and was about to jack out until he felt something in the room. He looks around the room in an attempt to find something, but he had no results. "What's wrong?" Kaden asks, noticing Rex's curious behavior.

"Hang on…" Rex walks to a corner of the room and searched there. All of a sudden a port opens up right in his face, scaring him as he fell back on a sitting position to the ground. "Aah!"

"What the heck was that?" Kaden asks as he sees the thing opening up through his PET screen.

Rex slowly stands up and looks at the thing. "Kaden…" Rex starts as he peaks his head into the port. "I think this leads into the network!"

"So that's how the viruses got in here!" Kaden declares as the puzzle pieces finally come together. "The viruses must've hacked their way through there to get in here! Rex, we can finally go out there and search for Littlefoot and the others!"

Rex retracts his head from the port and nods to his Operator. "Yeah! Let's go!" Rex turns around and was about to go in when he stopped. He just felt something in the room, the presence of someone else in the area. He turns around and looks around the room, seeing nobody in there but himself.

"Rex?" Kaden asks as he notices Rex's nervous behavior.

"Someone else's in here…" Rex whispers to his Operator.

"What? Who could…!"

Rex tensed upon hearing a footstep. He quickly turns around to the entrance and spots the intruder; an Alimon Navi with heavy looking armor and a very dangerous looking tail. Rex's eyes widen as he recognizes the Alimon. It's that Alimon he fought against in the train! "You…!"

"What a pleasant surprise." The Alimon comments in a serious tone. "I knew you were out there but I wasn't expecting you, of all people, to come help the Net Police."

"What are you doing here, Alimon?" Rex asks in hostility. He still hasn't forgotten how this Alimon tried to delete Cera.

"What am I doing here?" The Alimon chuckled amusingly. "Why, I'm here on duty, my friend."

"Duty?" Kaden asks.

"Of course." Another voice spoke, but it wasn't through Kaden's PET. "I am a member of Net Savior after all."

That voice came from above him! Kaden looked up to the second floor of the warehouse to see the Alimon's Operator up there with her PET jacked into a port of the generator's from the second floor. Kaden's eyes widened as he even recognized the Operator from Haruko's shop a couple of hours ago. "Kiraa!"

"I had a feeling you weren't going to listen to my warning." Kiraa coolly commented, referring to Kaden's refusal to stay at his home and away from the network. "But then, I guess I'd have to thank you for lending a hand here."

"You were spying on us?" Kaden shouts in annoyance.

"In a way, yes." Kiraa answers. "I could've left you alone but after seeing you find that hole to the network I just cannot let you get through it and into the network."

"But why!" Kaden shouts with a shake of his fist, getting angry. "We just want to find our friends' Navis!"

"They are better off dead!" Kiraa shouts to the kid below her. "And I'm going to see to that! Grayscale, close down that port!"

Grayscale nods. "Understood." With a powerful leap she jumps and, almost in an instant, moves from across the room to the port behind Rex, a move so fast the shockwave from her speeding past him knocked the winged Navi down to the ground.

"Oof!" Rex takes a second to recover before getting up to his feet to face Grayscale. "She's fast!"

"Don't let her close our only way to the network, Rex!" Kaden orders to his Navi, his eyes dead set in a determined glare.

Rex nods in agreement, no way is he going to let his only means of finding his friends be yanked away by this Alimon. Grayscale notices the seriousness and determination in Rex's eyes as he puts himself in a stance ready for battle. "I can't understand you." Grayscale comments with a shake of her head. "A Sharptooth such as yourself siding with the scum of the network. Have you been brainwashed to believe that they are not the source of our problem?"

Rex growls, getting angry on hearing this Alimon's words. "I don't understand why you believe Leaf-Eaters are the real criminals, but I won't let you stop me from finding my friends!"

Kiraa just looked into her PET with little interest. "So be it." She responds as she closed her eyes. "You leave me no choice. The punishment for refusing to allow a Net Savior to finish their job is probable deletion." She then opened her eyes. "Grayscale, execute."

"We'll show you!" Kaden declares with a serious glare. "Battle routine, set!"

"Execute!" Rex finishes.

"This will be over in a second!" Grayscale threatens as she bares her sharp teeth at Rex.

* * *

Littlefoot never knew the admins of the network would actually install such a dangerous place. The gang is carefully crossing a volcanic setting of Garden Area 3. As they walk across a rather narrow passage over the lava they have to watch their step, one false move could end up with them falling into the lava. And once you fall into lava, you know you're dead.

"Do not look down…Do not look down…" Ducky repeats over and over as she crosses the narrow passage along with the others, her eyes set forward and not bothering to look down at the lava.

"We're almost there, guys." Littlefoot encourages as he takes up the lead. "See? I can see solid ground just up ahead!"

"I really want to know what the admins were thinking when they designed this place…" Cera comments, sounding annoyed and peeved about having to cross this suicidal place. "I mean, c'mon, whose bright idea was it to use such dangerous flowing fire programs?"

"Petrie not having problem crossing!" Petrie comments as he's easy crossing the place.

Cera glares at Petrie. "Well of course you're not having any problem, you're flying over it!"

Cera speaks the truth, Petrie's just flying circles over the gang. He giggles and just continues flying. "But flying is what Petrie do best!"

"Keep bragging and I'll shoot you down…!"

Littlefoot chuckles to himself. "C'mon guys, cut it out."

Reaching the other side Littlefoot sighs in relief as he finally touches firm ground. He turns around to wait for his other friends to make it to his side safely. It was a rather tough journey through this valley of fire. They had to jump across gaps, walk over narrow passages over lava, and even cross sinking logs and rocks; any step could've been their last.

"Phew, we made it." Littlefoot comments in relief as the whole gang is on solid ground and accounted for.

"How much longer until we get to the Great Valley Square, Littlefoot?" Ducky asks as she looks up at her Longneck friend. He can tell from the look on her face that is tired, they all are.

Littlefoot smiles warmly at his Swimmer friend. "Not much longer now, Ducky. We just have to follow this road down the area and we should see it soon enough."

"Oh I really hope so." Ducky walks over to Spike, who's sitting on a rock resting his tired legs. "Spike and I really wanna see Sally and Stephen again very much. Right, Spike?" Spike smiles at her and hums with a nod.

"Well c'mon!" Cera yells at them as she continues moving. "The longer we wait the more in trouble we're going to be if that virus finds us aga-" To everyone's surprise the ground under Cera's feet cracks open and swallows her whole. Everyone gasps in horror as Cera falls through the ground in a scream.

"Cera!" Littlefoot and the others run over to the edge of the hole, but then the ground breaks from right under their feet and they all fall through and down to the ground below. They scream as they descend down the unknown, wondering if this is it for them. Cera slams against a hill and slides down to the ground below, the collision against the ground almost making her lose consciousness. Once again her luck shows as she hits solid ground below instead of nothingness.

Littlefoot and the others hit ground as well, but unlike Cera they bounce off and roll down a hill and land on a more squishy and dense material, a tar pit! Littlefoot brings his head out from under and gasp for air as he struggles to keep himself afloat from the very dense tar. He breathes heavily and looks behind him to see Spike and Ducky struggling as well to keep themselves from drowning in the tar.

"Litlefoot!" Ducky shouts in despair as she struggles to get out of the tar but with little success.

Littlefoot grits his teeth as he tries to get close to the edge of the pit, but he's not having much luck. He looks behind him again to check up on his friends as they struggle. He sees Spike grabbing onto Ducky and putting her on his back to keep her from going under, protecting her as he usually does. Littlefoot looks forward and struggles again to get to the edge, but swimming in such a dense pit isn't so easy, and they're growing tired as they keep struggling.

"Oh no!" Petrie stammers as he flies over them and around the place, trying to figure out a way to help them. Petrie can't grab them and pull them out; he's much too small for such a feat. He flies around some more and spots a vine not too far off. Getting an idea he flies over to the vine and grabs it. He then pulls it over with him and flies circles around a wasted tree to tie it good before flying over Littlefoot and dropping the end of the vine to him. "Here, grab on!"

Thanking Petrie a hundred times in his mind Littlefoot holds out his hand and grabs the vine, pulling himself with it with all of his might. He grits his teeth as he feels a tug of war going on between the vine and the tar as he keeps pulling himself out of it, his exhaustion increasing as he puts every muscle in his body at work to pull him out. "Spike…!" Littlefoot grunts as he looks back at the SpikeTail. "C'mon! Grab my tail!"

Spike desperately paddles his way through the tar and grabs on to Littlefoot's tail. The extra weight on him almost makes him lose his grip on the vine, but Littlefoot puts all of his strength into it and pulls himself closer and closer out of the pit. Even Petrie tries his best to help them as he grabs on the vine with his feet and flaps his wings to pull them out. It all happened very slowly but Littlefoot soon finds himself closer and closer to the edge and out of the pit. Exhausted and tired he plants his feet on the ground and pulls himself completely out of the tar before turning around and helping Spike in pulling him out of the pit. Tired and exhausted the three Navis plop down to the ground and lie there, their chests heaving as they try to catch their best, their entire body covered in tar and dripping.

"Hahh…Hahh…" Littlefoot breathes in deeply. "Hahh…Thanks, Petrie…"

"Oh, yes. Thank you very very very much, Petrie!" Ducky adds in between breaths.

Petrie sighs in relief as he's perched up on the tree. "You're welcome."

Littlefoot slowly lifts his head up, his eyes scanning the area trying to find somebody. "Wait a minute…Where's Cera?"

Spike and Ducky sit up as they too notice the missing ThreeHorn. Where did she land when she fell through the ground? She didn't fall into the tar pit and sunk below, did she? Concerned, Ducky gets up to her knees and looks out at the tar pit and calls out to her. "Cera! Where are you, Cera?"

"Cera!" Petrie joins the search as he flies over the tar pit and circles the area trying to find any signs of her.

Littlefoot gulped loudly as he slowly got up to his knees. "No…"

A sudden scream breaks the silence in the area. A scream that belonged to none other than Cera! She's in trouble! Littlefoot quickly got up to his feet and saw across the tar pit with his long neck and saw a few viruses running to the left, chasing something. Those viruses were Pachycephalosaurus, or HardHeads as some Navis call them. These brown viruses are about 15 feet long and are really dangerous with extremely tough bony dome atop their skulls. Their thick necks are fairly short and their tails are known to be heavy, perfect for them to slam their tails against their prey. Their bodies are pretty bulky and have long hind legs, making them tough targets for close-range.

"Oh no…" Littlefoot mutters as he just saw the viruses. He quickly looks around for a place to cross the tar pit, but then again it will be suicide to go through it. They have no choice but to go around it. "C'mon! Cera's in trouble!" He calls to the others as he starts running around the pit to get to the other side.

And they better hurry, because Cera really is in trouble. She screams as she just barely dodged a ram from one of the viruses. Their charges are extremely dangerous and can be quite damaging, just one slam could break a Navi's bones and leave them completely defenseless. Not even tough armor can save them from their skulls. Cera jumps over a boulder and keeps on running, hoping that could slow them down. Unfortunately as she looked back the viruses charged _through _the boulder, smashing it to bits with their skulls. "Oh no!" She yells as she keeps on running. "Help! Littlefoot! Petrie! Ducky! Spike! Help!"

"Hang on, Cera!" Littlefoot shouts as he jumps down from a rock and continues running, still crossing over the tar pit around it.

"We are coming, Cera! Hold on!" Ducky cries as she follows the others.

Cera pants as she keeps on running, exhaustion beginning to sweep over her. She starts to slow down, unable to continue running at full speed. She hears footsteps coming from behind her and looks over her shoulders, screaming as one HardHead virus comes charging at her with its head lowered to ram her. She jumps aside but trips on the ground as the virus ran past her; if this keeps up they'll really nail her soon.

One of the virus charges at her with a screech, ready to hit her. Cera screamed and closed her eyes, ready to take on the hit. Fortunately the Calvary arrives in the form of a SpikeTail as the HardHead virus takes a mean punch to its face, knocking it down to the ground and slamming hard against a boulder. The viruses take note of the attack on one of them and are ready to attack the intruder when a buster shot strikes one of the viruses' head and knocking it down. A series of bubbles float to the remaining virus and collide against it, its hit points dropping from the attack. The virus that was knocked down from the punch slowly gets up and shakes it head, its effort set to attack the intruders. But before it could get the chance another fist from its attacker slams against its head and its neck snaps from the force of the blow. The virus lifelessly flops to the ground and disintegrates as it deletes.

Spike, the one who just deleted the virus, grabs and picks up a boulder and throws it to the other two viruses, crushing them under the huge boulder. And just like that the viruses are gone.

"All right, Spike!" Littlefoot cheers as he changes his hand back to normal.

Ducky cheers and runs up to Spike to give him a hug. "That is how my brother does it! Yup yup yup!"

The celebration however was short lived when an extra HardHead virus jumps out from behind Ducky and Spike, its head down to slam them both with its thick head. The surprised brother and sister scream and are seemed to be just about to be attacked when a flying object tackles the HardHead on its stomach and knocks the virus right out of the sky and on the ground, dealing great damage. The virus scrambles up to its feet and snarls at the group before taking off, leaving the group alone and surviving to live another day.

Petrie flies up high and returns back to the others, feeling proud of himself from that tackle as he giggles and cheers himself on. "And that how me do it!"

Ducky giggles and hugs Petrie after the Flyer landed next to her. "You saved us, Petrie! Yup yup yup!" The two of them were then suddenly grabbed by the two bulky arms of Spike, wrapping them up in a hug as he happily licked the two of them, causing the two Navis to giggle and laugh from Spike's licks.

Littlefoot couldn't help but laugh as well from the happy moment. Those three really know how to cheer the situation up. He looks over to Cera and runs up to her, holding out his hand to help her up. "Are you all right?"

Cera grumbled and grabbed Littlefoot's hand to help her up; she hates it when someone saves her life. She was never good at giving thanks to someone else. "Yeah yeah, I'm fine…" She dusts herself off as she got up and walked away from the group to find out where they are. Looking out at the area it seemed like a wasteland. Tar pits, holes, dying trees; she never saw a network like this before in her life. Just what kind of network is this?

"Well, where to now, Littlefoot?" She asks the 'leader' of this trip as she crosses her arms. "I'm sure another landmark will point us to the right direction." The way she said made was sarcastic, as if she never believed in the whole landmark thing leading them to the square.

Littlefoot scans the area as well, his expression frowning as he doesn't recognize the place either; where to go, he wonders. He scratches his head as he thinks, trying to map out a good direction to go in. "Ummm…"

Ducky and Petrie look up at Littlefoot, waiting for their friend to tell them which direction to go. They know they can trust Littlefoot in everything, but even right now it's starting to look like Littlefoot has lost his sense of direction, not knowing where to go. "Littlefoot?" Ducky inquires, sounding a bit nervous about Littlefoot's struggle to choose on where to go.

Littlefoot's head turns left and right repeatedly, looking down at each direction and wondering on which direction to go. Which direction to go? He doesn't recognize this place at all. He bites his lower lip, how can he have gotten them all lost now? He had been leading them to the Great Valley Square, he was confident he knew the way and could get them all safely to it. But now, now it looks like the confident and brave Littlefoot has met his match. He slowly clutches his chest, feeling his heart beating. Can he do this? Can he lead them all to safety or to their deletion? Oh how he wishes his mother was here…

_Littlefoot…_

Littlefoot gasps. Mother?

_I will always be with you…Just listen to your heart…_

Heart…

Littlefoot looked back at down the roads and thought hard. They don't have the admins landmarks to help them find their way to the Great Valley Square, so they have to choose their own paths of their choosing. But which direction? Littlefoot thought back to the Longneck Mountain and the valley of fire they crossed. He thought about the direction they went to, the direction they all seemed to take. He felt that they should take the route that leads them to the left. He couldn't help it but he felt that was the way…

_Just listen to your heart…_

I will, mother…I will…

"Guys," Littlefoot starts as he lifts his head and looks to his left. "It's this way."

Cera looks down the direction Littlefoot chose and arched an eyebrow, it doesn't seem to lead anywhere other than deeper into this wasteland they're in just below the area of fire. She arches an eyebrow, is Littlefoot serious?

"Are you sure, Littlefoot?" Ducky asks, a bit skeptical about Littlefoot's decision.

Littlefoot nods, his expression dead serious about his decision. "I am." With that sole response he walks and heads his way toward the direction he chose. The gang looked at each other, wondering if this is a wise choice. In an unknown territory such as this one, any wrong choice could lead to disaster.

Spike made his choice and followed Littlefoot, the big hearted SpikeTail trusts him enough to lead him to safety. Seeing his brother go, Ducky also puts his trust on the LongNeck and goes along with them. Petrie looks at the gang leaving and then at Cera, debating on what to do. In the end he chooses to follow his friends, leaving Cera behind to think. Cera thought about going along her own way. She can find the Great Valley Square by herself if she wanted to. In the end she grumbled to herself and followed them, deciding to go along with the gang.

Hey, guessing a route together is better than guessing alone.

* * *

Grayscale lunged for Rex with her teeth ready to shred anything in her path apart, her speed unbelievable. Rex was almost caught in her assault but manages to roll out of the way in time. He winced as he felt Grayscale's claws grazing against his skin the moment he rolled away, but he didn't have time to take his licks. Immediately after he jumps back to gain distance and shoots at Grayscale with his buster gun, but Grayscale proves to be a master of speed as she effortlessly jumps away and out of range.

"Not getting away that easy…" Rex mutters as he get up to one knee and aims carefully, taking great care in timing his shots and calculating where Grayscale will move next. It proves to be a plausible tactic, but Grayscale is smarter than that. She quickly takes note of his tactic and changes direction, running to the left and jumps into the air in a front flip, the blade on her tail turning into an axe to slam it down on her opponent. Rex gasped and jumped up into the air, barely dodging the slam by inches as Grayscale's tail slams hard on the ground, cracking it and shattering the ground in pieces. It felt like everything was going in slow motion but Rex and Grayscale were locked in glares of hatred as Rex lunged upward to dodge and Grayscale down on the attack.

"Mega Fist, code B! Battle chip in!" Kaden declared as he quickly jammed a battle chip into his PET. Immediately Rex's right fist became gigantic, a powerful fist that can shatter anything in a powerful slam. Rex rears his fist back as he started to descend and slammed it down to crush Grayscale under his huge fist. The attack came very fast, but Grayscale proved to be even faster as at the last possible moment Grayscale jumped back and out of the way, back flipping in the air once as particles of dust followed her before landing gracefully on her feet a few feet away from her. Rex growled as his massive fist now lays buried into the ground as the dust cleared, his glaring eye staring right at Grayscale.

"Hmph, give it up." Kiraa advices to Rex's Operator down below. "Grayscale has never been defeated in battle before. Her speed is just too much for anyone to handle. That attack you nailed on her yesterday was just luck."

"Shut up!" Kaden barked up to Kiraa. "We won't be taken down that easily!" He then turns his head to his PET to focus. "She's fast, Rex. But we can do this!"

"Yeah!" Rex nods in agreement as he pulls out his massive fist, the MegaFist battle chip is still in effect. Rex charges to Grayscale and swings his fist at her, but misses by inches as Grayscale moved at the last second. Rex turns with his arm still outstretched to hit her but Grayscale adds insult as she jumps over Rex and plants her hind legs to his head and propels herself off from his head. The force pushes Rex down to the ground but Rex quickly recovers with a deadly glare and jumps with an uppercut with the massive fist. To dodge the fist Grayscale maneuvers her body forward, having the fist pass right by her from behind safely. Frustrated Rex swings the fist downward, only to have it miss as Grayscale once again maneuvers her body away from him.

"Too slow." Grayscale mocks as she dodged the attack. The lands on the ground and leaps away as the fist comes crashing down to the ground, once again cracking the floor and sending fragments of the ground flying everywhere. As Grayscale looks on at Rex with a smirk Rex growls as he retracts his fist from the ground. The fight just gets worse as the Mega Fist chip expires and Rex's hand grows back to normal.

"She's too fast…" Rex mutters in anger. "I can't land a blow on her…"

"I got an idea." Kaden informs his Navi as he holds out a few chips. "Just keep her busy."

Rex nods and holds his hand as he activates his Chip Memory custom program, Cyber Claw. His claws grow longer and now sparks in a radiant light-blue glow as it's powered by cybernetic energy. Interesting, Grayscale thought, so the reports are right. Rex held his hand to his back and charged at Grayscale for the offensive. He swung his claws at Grayscale's head but missed by Grayscale ducking low. Rex slashed downward but Grayscale jumped back. He thrusts his claws forward but Grayscale jumps to the side.

"Areasteal!" Hearing Kaden shout such a battle chip name pointed to the tactic of Rex tricking her to lower her guard. And she was right. Rex immediately went for a horizontal slash but at the last second he disappeared to the battle chip's effect. Grayscale kept a sharp eye out and saw Rex materializing behind her three seconds later for a vertical slash. How stupid, Grayscale thought, this trick's very old. Grayscale turned and jumped to the side, Rex's claws slicing deep into the ground. Grayscale couldn't help but smirk at the glare Rex's giving her, he must be so frustrated about their strategy failing pathetically.

"Oof!" Grayscale bumped into something. What the heck? She looked behind her and was shocked. A Shiny Wall! Did that brat just tricked her into dodging the attack and pinned her to this battle chip? In a room like this with such walls a ShinyWall chip could've been easily missed! How careless of her!

"Move, Grayscale!" Kiraa shouted. The shout snapped her back to reality and turned to face her opponent coming up at her with a slash. She manages to jump out of the way in time, but the timing was so close Rex's claws grazed her helmet. He touched her! Grayscale growled furiously as she skid on her feet to face her opponent.

"Mini Bomb, battle chip in!"

Grayscale blinked and looked to her left to see a mini-bomb materializing right next to her. With a ferocious growl Grayscale jumped away, getting away from the bomb as it exploded. Rex took this chance to go after her, his claws outstretched to slash her to bits. He slashes downward and manages to connect his attack to Grayscale's skull, but he got the surprise of his life when his claws weren't doing any damage, he was just locked in a struggle as his claws refused to pierce through Grayscale's helmet.

"Idiot." Grayscale insulted as she kept her head up despite Rex pushing down on her skull. "If a sword can't pierce through my armor, what makes you think you can with your claws?"

Rex was nervous as Grayscale began to overpower him. Kaden's strategy managed to get her helmet scratched, but that's just about it. Grayscale growled and pushed Rex's arm away and rushes in, tackling Rex right in his stomach with hard force. Rex screamed in pain as the tackle surged tremendous pain to his abdomen. He lands hard on his back and skids along the ground, his claws dying down and reverting back to normal as his body comes to a stop.

"Rex!" Kaden cries to his Navi, urging him to fight on. "C'mon, get up!"

"That wasn't such a bad strategy." Kaden looks up at Kiraa as she talks down to him. "You manipulated the room's coloring scheme to conceal the ShinyWall chip with the background to pin Grayscale. Combining it with the AreaSteal chip, it's a solid move to pin your opponent down. Not bad at all, even I didn't see it coming."

Rex slowly gets up while clutching his stomach. Such a tremendous blow, such is the power of the Alimon series. Grayscale walks forward and places her forepaw on Rex's chest, pinning him down to the ground. Rex grunts from the pressure on his chest and glares up at Grayscale, his teeth exposed at her. Grayscale just stared at him with a firm gaze.

"Hmph." Kiraa took out a battle chip of her own and downloaded it into her PET; the battle chip, Alimon Claws.

"It's over…" She comments as she raises her other paw in the air for the final blow, the claws on that paw growing longer and deadlier with the Alimon Claws chip. "Any last words?"

Rex stopped his growl. "Yeah, just four." Suddenly he lifted one of his arms and held it out to her face. Instead of meeting with a buster or his hand, she's looking down the barrel of a Cannon. "Get off of me!"

Grayscale stared down at the muzzle of the Cannon in shock. When did his Operator download such a chip! Before she could react the Cannon opened fire, the massive and powerful shot slamming hard against her chin and blowing her way back into the air and flips as she traveled back and slamming hard on the ground, bouncing once in a back flip before she regained her composure and straighten her body to slam on the ground on her legs. Landing on her feet she skids back to a stop, her lips curled back in a ferocious growl.

Kiraa, who had Kaden in her sight the whole time, was in shock as well. "When did you…?" She couldn't explain it at all. She never saw Kaden hold out his hand and slot a battle chip even once since the Area Steal/ShinyWall and Mini-Bomb combo. And from where she was standing, it was impossible to miss it too. She thought back to the moment she saw Kaden slot in the ShinyWall chip. It then dawned on her. She moved her eyes exclusively to her PET after the ShinyWall chip, she never saw Kaden slot in the Mini-Bomb chip until she saw it in the PET screen. Of course! The little brat downloaded the Cannon right after the Mini-Bomb. But how is that possible? A law in the Battle Chip Gate program states that the Operator cannot download a battle chip in three seconds after the previous battle chip has been used, otherwise it could overload the program. Unless…

"Hah, I saw that one coming, Kiraa!" Kaden arrogantly states as he looks up at her. "It was kind of obvious Rex couldn't hit Grayscale due to her speed, so I thought he would've had better luck by surprising her. That's when I took of that combo with the Area Steal and ShinyWall."

"I see…" Kiraa comments as she follows Kaden's line of thinking. "You then sneaked in a battle chip of the same code as the Mini-Bomb to surprise Grayscale at the best possible moment…"

Kaden chuckles and rubs his nose with his pointing finger. "Well I knew Grayscale was going to be on top of Rex sooner or later."

As Rex got up to his feet he couldn't help but frown and have a look of disgust on his face after hearing that. "I don't know what's worse, the sound of that with innuendo or without."

Grayscale glares at Rex as she pants heavily. Normally a Cannon chip has a power rate of forty, but at a point blank shot like she just suffered doubles that kind of attack power. Add that to the shot being to the face and it nearly destroys you.

"I'm growing tired of you…" Grayscale growls as she readies for another attack. "Once I delete you I'll make sure your friends will be next!"

"Why?" Rex shouts as he keeps his Cannon trained at Grayscale, recalling the argument he had with her at the train. "Why do you keep wanting to delete them? Why the Leaf-Eaters?"

"Why…?" Grayscale slowly gets up from her crouched position. "I'll tell you why…" Grayscale slowly lifted her paw and placed it over her helmet and then, gripping it tight, she removes it, revealing her face to Rex. What Rex saw made him flinch. On her face Grayscale has a scar that snakes down across her right eye down her cheek and stops at her jaw. This is no ordinary scar. This scar glows a low blue glow as particles of data emits from the wound. These kinds of scars are actually wounds that have shattered through the Navi's frame so deep that they become unable to heal, leaving behind such a nasty reminder. Rex stares at Grayscale in horror while Kaden does the same through his PET window.

"About two years ago a group of Leaf-Eaters did this to me…" Grayscale narrates the horrible day. "I was on patrol and I found this lost Leaf-Eater Navi. I tried to help it like a member of Net Savior would, but then it retaliated and attacked me. I fought back in self-defense, but this Navi had friends, and before I knew it I was surrounded by a group of about twenty Leaf-Eaters." Grayscale's voice grows meaner and more hostile as she continues. "This group called themselves the Leaf-Haters, a self-claimed group of net terrorists claiming to be responsible of a massive spree of crimes back then. They all attacked me at once, I was overwhelmed. With sheer will power I managed to defeat them all, but just when I thought they were all dead…" Grayscale began to growl, her anger getting the best of her.

"One of them surprised us." Kiraa continued for her Navi, the same hint of anger in her voice as well. "With a sword chip it attacked Grayscale across the face, horribly injuring us both. Despite them being defeated they still claimed that all Leaf-Eaters will someday rise to destroy us all…" Kiraa gripped her fists tight as she anger is getting to her as well. "Those stupid Leaf-Eaters…Corrupted programs…All of them…They all deserve to be deleted…!"

Kaden couldn't help but stare up at Kiraa in a lot of shock and terror, such a tragic story and such a horrible scar on Grayscale. Kaden couldn't help but stare at the scar on Kiraa's face. Coincidentally Kiraa's scar is identical to the one on Grayscale's face. But what does that mean?

"W-Wait a minute!" Rex objected as he lowered his Cannon. "You can't categorize all Leaf-Eaters in the same way as that gang! They are all not like them! Not at all!"

"Shut up!" Grayscale shouts as she puts on her helmet back. "I'm growing tired of you, Sharptooth! Kiraa, let's end this play time!"

"Agreed." Kiraa agrees with her Navi. Kaden blinks, wondering what they're going to do now. They have to be on their toes. Kaden is taken back when he sees Kiraa's glare getting more dangerous. She starts gritting her teeth, and all of a sudden Kaden could feel this strange feeling, like if something is wrapping around him. All of a sudden Kaden gasps as in one mighty shout from Kiraa starts a startling phenomenon. "Full Synchro!"

Kiraa's clothes began to levitate and move as if there was a gust of wind and her cap suddenly flew right off from her head. Her hair began sway as if in the wind as a nearly invisible aura surrounds her. What the heck did she do?

In the NuclearFrame Rex was in shock of something too. Rex could feel Grayscale's increased power. He could see a nearly invisible aura surrounding her too. "W-What the?" Rex inquires in pure shock.

"Afraid?" Grayscale asks, her voice sounding much meaner and ferocious. "You should be. Because this will be the last thing you see."

Kiraa stood there as she was still in some kind of phenomenon. The arm that's holding her PET is just drooped down; she's not even looking into her PET to monitor Grayscale. It's like she doesn't need it, as if she's standing there watching the actual NetBattle. "Finish the job, Grayscale."

* * *

The team slightly covered their eyes as they walked out to the sunlight. Listening to his heart finally paid off for Littlefoot as they now stand at the edge of a cliff where in front of them lies a beautiful chain of mountains and lakes. The team couldn't help but smile in joy and run down the cliff side to their right, happily smiling and laughing as they run down to the water area to refresh their tired and dirty bodies in the cool and soothing water. They were all just so happy that they were out of that wasteland. Littlefoot laughed as Spike and Cera splashed at each other while Ducky happily swam under the cool water and Petrie was flying around and diving into the water to cool him down; a peaceful moment to relax and rest before continuing.

"Hahah! I still can't believe we actually made it this far!" Cera exclaims as she rested at the edge of the water pool after they all finished their playtime. "I mean, who knew you would actually get us out of there, Littlefoot!"

Ducky giggles as she sits next to Spike. "Littlefoot is very good at direction. He is he is!"

Littlefoot laughs as he rubs the back of his head bashfully. "Hahah, well it was nothing really. I just thought long and hard and let my heart show me the way."

"Your heart?" Cera arches an eyebrow at Littlefoot's statement. "How can your heart tell you anything?"

Littlefoot looks down at his chest as he placed his paw over it, recalling his mother's words about listening to his heart. "It's strange really; it just feels like a very strong feeling…I just felt that this was the right way. And it was right, I mean, it let us here, right?"

Ducky nods with a smile. "Oh, yes! Your heart must be very good with directions to show you the way that led us here!"

Petrie lands next to Littlefoot and looks at his chest with curiosity and then he presses his ear to Littlefoot's chest. "Me wonder what else is telling right now."

Littlefoot laughs at Petrie's attempt to listen in and playfully pushes him off of him. "Hahah, it doesn't work that way, Petrie."

Cera was still skeptical about what Littlefoot is telling them. She still doesn't really understand how a heart can tell you anything, especially when in reality Navis don't have hearts to begin with. They're just a frame of data. In the end she just shrugged it off, not really caring for the ultimate answer to her riddle. "Oh well, I'm not complaining. I mean, it got us this far, right?"

Suddenly the peace in the environment is broken when a loud roar echoes through the area, startling the five of them. They all jump to their feet and huddle together, their hearts frozen in fear. It couldn't be, could it? Littlefoot slowly walks over to a high end of the area and spots what he feared; the giant Sharptooth virus, just further up in the mountain. Littlefoot frowns, if this keeps up the virus will find the Great Valley Square and ultimately destroy it.

"Oh no…" Petrie whisper as he too spots the Sharptooth further up.

"Not the mean Sharptooth virus." Ducky comments, her voice shaking.

Cera growls as she too sees the Sharptooth. "Oh how I wish I could delete that thing once and for all! After what that thing did to the network it really deserves it!"

Littlefoot shakes his head. They can't let this virus find the Square and destroy it, it just can't happen, they have to do something. For every Navi in the network, for the real world, for his mother, this virus has got to go.

Littlefoot scans the area. They can't destroy the virus with their default attack weapons, so he has to devise a way to destroy it. He spots a body of water not too far from the Sharptooth, Littlefoot looks behind him and spots a huge boulder. Littlefoot quickly devises a plan: A virus that can't swim will be deleted if it falls into deep water.

"I got an idea!" Littlefoot turns to his friends and rounds them up. "If we can lure the virus into the water we can drown it!"

Cera arches an eyebrow at Littlefoot. That's his plan? "And how do you propose we do that?"

Littlefoot points to the body of water from his plan. "There. We have to lure the virus to that body of water," He then points to the boulder behind him. "And then we push the boulder over the edge and nail the virus right on the head. That way we can drown it underwater."

"Ooh, me like that plan!" Petrie seems to agree to the plan.

But Cera blinks at the idea. "Um, okay. So who's going to lure the virus to the water? I'm sure you noticed how big that boulder is. It's gonna take all of us to push it."

Cera's right, the boulder won't be easy to push. Who to use as bait to lure the Sharptooth to the water? Spike? No, his strength is gonna be needed for the boulder. Cera? No, not only will she not agree to it but they will also need her strength for the boulder. Petrie? Maybe, but then Littlefoot will need to him to signal them when the Sharptooth is on the deep end. Littlefoot's eyes end up on Ducky, and soon the whole gang end up looking at her. Realizing what they're referring at with their looks Ducky steps back. "M-Me?"

Littlefoot simply responds with a nod.

Why me? Ducky pondered herself that as she was sent to do the baiting. She hoped this plan would work, not only to save the Square but also to save her. As she wandered in the mountain side in one of the caverns she hears the distant rumbles of footsteps, the virus must be somewhere around here. She stops upon seeing a huge tail slithering past a corner of the cave. This is it, she thought; time to bait the Sharptooth to the water. She cooped her hands to her mouth and let out a scream. The sound of it caused the Sharptooth to turn around to see the culprit of the scream, but could see no one. Ducky had hidden herself behind a rock, afraid of letting the Sharptooth see her and give chase. She gulped as she trembled behind the rock, she wasn't trusted to hide like a little child, she had an important job to do! Gathering her courage she jumped on top of the rock and gave another shout. "Yoo-hoo! Sharptooth! I am over here!"

The Sharptooth turned and snarled upon seeing the Swimmer. It roars as it turns, giving Ducky the hint to run for it. She turns and runs for her life as the Sharptooth virus began to give chase, its footsteps causing the ground to shake and to slightly crack in two. Ducky panted as she ran, terrified to look behind her in case the Sharptooth was too close for comfort, she doesn't even want to see the Sharptooth at all!

She makes it to the end of the cavern and jumps just as the Sharptooth lunge for a bite, the two of them sliding down a cliff and into a pool of water, just the one Littlefoot chose for his plan.

"Them here!" Petrie shouts as he stands on a protruding rock on the cliff wall, acting as a lookout for the others.

Littlefoot looks down the cliff to see the Sharptooth, but the lack of Ducky in his sight makes him worry. "Ducky!"

Down below Ducky surfaces from the water, waving up at them. "I am okay!" She cries, but then she screams as a wave in the water caught her by surprise as the Sharptooth virus trashes around in the water before standing on the shallow end. Risking being seen and eaten Ducky dives underwater to the deep end and hides in an underwater crevasse.

Realizing there's no time to waste Littlefoot runs to the boulder and starts pushing against it with Spike and Cera. While Ducky was baiting the Sharptooth to the water the three of them managed to move the boulder to the edge, leaving it ready to push for when the Sharptooth came. "C'mon!" He shouts to the others as he pushes against the boulder, urging them to join in.

While the three of them struggle with the boulder the Sharptooth began to slash at the ground under the water with its legs as it tries to find that Swimmer Navi who tricked it into the water. Petrie began to grow more worried for Ducky as he watched the Sharptooth trashing at the ground. The plan is taking longer than they thought, the boulder has gotten stuck somehow and it's being harder to make it budge. "Oooh, hurry!" Petrie urges as his worried state grows more and more.

The Sharptooth roars in frustration, where has this Swimmer disappeared to? It looks up and sees the others up above it, now its sights are set on them. Petrie gasped and hid his face behind the rock, hoping the Sharptooth didn't see them. Suddenly the virus slams its head against the mountain wall, the slam sending a shockwave in the cliff and shaking them up, nearly tripping Littlefoot, Cera and Spike down the cliff. As for Petrie the rock under him gave way and he soon found himself with nothing below him and he fell.

Hearing Petrie's screams the three gasped and looked down below. "Petrie!" Littlefoot shouts.

Petrie desperately flaps his wings to fly up. The Sharptooth snaps its jaws to grab at Petrie but fails; instead Petrie falls on its head. Realizing he's on top of the Sharptooth's head Petrie panics and pulls down the virus' eyelids, blinding it. The virus trashes its head, occasionally smacking it against the mountain wall as it struggles to get the Flyer off of its head and to let it see. The last smack against the wall made the boulder slightly budge forward as it loosens up. This was their chance. "C'mon, we have to do it now!" Cera commands to his friends and they all plant their hands to the boulder and they push with all their might. Soon the boulder moves and rolls forward, slowly inching closer and closer toward the edge.

"Petrie!" Littlefoot shouts. "Get away from the virus now!" One final push and the boulder rolls forward and off the edge it goes. It rolls down and descends at a high speed and slams hard down on the Sharptooth's head, cracking its skull and pushing it down into the water and into the deep end.

After hearing the shout Petrie managed to get off of the Sharptooth's head in the nick of time, surviving the boulder as it zoomed right past him and down on the Sharptooth's head. His heart still beating rapidly from that scare Petrie watches as the Sharptooth sinks to the bottom of the pool with the boulder in tow, dragging it down into the deepest reach of the pool.

Ducky emerges from the water and walks out of it before turning around, also witnessing the Sharptooth disappearing under the water.

Up above Littlefoot, Cera and Spike look down as the Sharptooth disappears into the water. After the truth sinks in all three of them jump and yell for joy. "We did it! Yes! Hahah! All right! Yeah!"

"I can't believe we actually did it!" Cera exclaims in awe as she celebrates with the others. "We totally showed that Sharptooth who's boss!"

Littlefoot laughs in total happiness. They really did it. They finally got rid of the Sharptooth that's been plaguing the network. As they all give their good laugh of victory they look down as Ducky calls up to them. "Hello up there!"

"Ducky!" Littlefoot exclaims in happiness to see that she's all right.

"You all right!" Petrie exclaims as he flies down to her and wraps her up in a hug. Ducky giggles and returns the hug.

The three above giggles at the scene and turn to look at each other. "C'mon!" Littlefoot waves at them and the three of them make their way down to meet the two of them below. It has been a remarkable achievement. Together they have overcome the dangers of the ruined network and destroyed the virus responsible for all of this mess.

But while their battle has concluded, another battle resumes in another place.

* * *

Rex shot with his Cannon battle chip, but Grayscale simply just moved to the side at blinding speed. Rex couldn't believe how fast Grayscale has gotten after gaining such an aura around her. She was so much faster than before that Rex's eyes just couldn't follow her, it was like she disappears and reappears in another location. Rex gasps and looks over his shoulder to see Grayscale standing there right behind him. Before he could turn around to attack her Grayscale turned and slammed her tail against his body.

"Gaaaaahh!" Rex screams as the pain surges through his body, the pain much worse than the tackle to his stomach. Rex skids against the ground from the slam and coughs as soon as his body stops. He slowly gets up to one knee but takes a horrible headbutt attack to his chin, knocking him upward into the sky. How can Grayscale move so fast all of a sudden?

"Rex!" Kaden screams in horror, unable to believe the power boost Grayscale has taken all of a sudden. She was fast enough back then, but now she's impossible! "Hang in there, Rex!"

"When are you going to learn? It's over." Kaden looks up at Kiraa, seeing the nearly invisible aura still surrounding her. It's like something out of Dragon Ball Z! "Grayscale and I are fully synchronized. We are like one, our hearts beating at the same time. Grayscale is now much stronger than before, you can't beat her."

Kaden glares at her, determined to prove her wrong. "We'll show you…!" He takes out and holds out his most powerful chip and slots it into his PET. "FireWater, code M! Battle chip in!"

Rex opens his eyes as they glow red. He turns his body over and holds out his glowing fist as he descends. He shouts as he descends and slams his fist into the ground, cracking it into a million fragments and openings. Lava flows out from the cracks and floods the entire field as a massive wave of lava engulfs the area. It seems that this attack won't miss Grayscale, but the Alimon doesn't do any effort in dodging. Instead she holds out her paw to the wave and narrows her eyes, focusing her energy. Just then her aura grows bigger and sends a shockwave of air forward, surprisingly splitting the wave of lava in two and missing her entirely.

"Aaah!" Rex and Kaden shout in surprise at the same time, their eyes completely wide in fear and shock. Grayscale has just done the impossible without even touching the wave. This is impossible! Their most powerful giga chip, blocked just like that!

"C'mon, Grayscale." Kiraa starts as she takes out a chip and slots it into her PET, the Horn Thrust chip. "Let's finish this."

Grayscale lowers her head as her horns begin to glow. They begin to grow longer and outward, ready to gore anything in her path. Rex gasps and takes a step back, his body trembling as he's in shock from the last defense. He can't win this…!

"Rex!" Kaden shouts as he brings out his hand to the jack-in cable, ready to jack him out. "Jack-o-"

But it was too late. In the blink of an eye Grayscale charged at a speed so fast it could've broken the sound barrier. Grayscale charged and collided against Rex's abdomen with her head, ultimately one of her now longer horns piercing through Rex's stomach and through his back, impaling him deeply. It all happened to fast he couldn't even jack out. And now it is too late; while in someone's grasp a Navi is incapable of jacking out.

Rex's mouth opened wide for an agonizing scream, but all that came out was cybernetic blood from the impalement, his eyes extremely wide as his pupils are almost gone from the agony. Grayscale just couldn't help but smirk at his expression, it was just priceless. As soon as her paws hit the ground she lifted her head up high and flicked her head to the right, tossing Rex off of from her horns and to the ground like yesterday's scrap.

Kaden trembles as he just watched such brutality through his PET screen. He's at a loss for words as he helplessly watches his Navi lying motionless on the ground, a nasty de-rezzing hole on his stomach from such an attack. How could this have happened…?

"R-Rex…" Kaden shakily held out his hand and pressed his fingers on his PET's screen, wanting to go to his Navi's side to soothe his agony. "Rex…"

"Hmph," Kiraa closed her eyes as the aura surrounding her vanished, her clothes draping down again. Whatever she was doing it's gone now. "We'll let your Navi live…" She turned around to jack Grayscale out. "Consider yourself lucky…"

Kaden gritted his teeth as tears began to go down his cheeks. Rex…No! He won't let him de-rezz! Not yet! They just met each other! Rex's the Navi Kaden always wanted! He finally got his Navi and he won't let someone like Kiraa take him away from him! He won't let her!

"You…!"

Kiraa stopped and turned around, her eyes down on Kaden on the floor below. She sees the boy giving a deadly glare at her, as if he'll jump up at her and attack her. "You…Monster…"

Kiraa's eyes slowly began to grow wide as something was happening to the boy. She felt the energy around the area; she could see Kaden's clothes slowly beginning to sway. It couldn't be…

In the NuclearFrame Grayscale watched as Rex slowly gets up to his feet, unable to believe that after such a devastating attack he can still stand. "We won't…" Kaden and Rex slowly begin to talk in unison at the same time. "We won't…Lose to you…!"

Grayscale's eyes widen as the wound on Rex's stomach slowly began to close up. How is this possible? Such attack should've depleted his hit points to at least one. Where are these extra hit points coming from?

"We won't lose to a monster…" Kaden and Rex said almost at the same time. As they kept on talking their speech slowly began to synchronize until even their mouth movements were synchronized. "We won't allow you to delete our Leaf-Eater friends…You are the one who has been brainwashed! To believe that all Leaf-Eaters are evil…You're nothing but a monster!" At that moment Rex was surrounded by some kind of energy, an energy that completely sealed up the wound on his stomach.

Kiraa and Grayscale narrowed their eyes. What fools! "Very well then!" Kiraa's aura came back on, and once again Grayscale's power increased dramatically. "You'll be deleted right this instant!" Kiraa takes out a mega chip and slots it into her PET. "Delete him, Grayscale! FlameBreath Blast, code F!"

Grayscale's eyes glowed red and she sucked in as much breath as she could and, when she was at full capacity, blows it all out in one huge fire breath blast! The entire breath of fire engulfed Rex in a mighty wall of fire. The fire expanded and now riddles the room in front of her, it would be impossible to see Rex survive that one.

But then again Rex never seemed the type to die easily. Grayscale couldn't believe her eyes as a figure slowly began to walk out from the burning blaze. It was Rex! How could he walk out from such a wall of fire just like that! Other than the upper left of his head being horrible burned and his shoulder pads slightly cracked, there's not a scratch on him to justify a head-on attack of the FlameBreath Blast battle chip!

"Impossible!" Grayscale declares as she takes a step back in shock. In the real world Kiraa was staring in shock at Kaden. The boy is surrounded by a same aura as she is. Kaden's eyes are closed as he's in deep anger, his fists shaking as he grits his teeth. Kiraa's eyes widen a bit more as she sees a wound slowly forming over Kaden's closed right eye, the wound starting to bleed as it fully forms over his eye. Kaden then slowly opens his left eye and glares angrily at Kiraa.

"Payback time!" Kaden shouts. "Go, Rex! CyberClaw attack!"

Rex charged as he threw back his hand, his claws getting longer and stronger as his Chip Memory custom program is executed. His speed as increased dramatically, practically rivaling Grayscale's speed in her powered up form. Grayscale gasped upon seeing Rex charged. "Kiraa, Synchro Out!"

Grayscale's aura dies down just in time before Rex's attack connects and slashes her across her chest. As Rex flies past her and lands behind her on one knee Grayscale grunts in agony as the slash penetrated her completely. Unable to keep going she automatically jacks out and escapes back into her PET.

Rex's claws grow back to normal and he drops forward flat on his face, his chest heaving and his eyes closed in agony from the wound on his head. "Huff…Huff…Huff…Ka…Den…Huff…"

"I can't believe it…" Kiraa mutters, still processing what just happened.

* * *

In the network the gang of five was in high spirits. They knew the Great Valley Square was very close. They felt it in their hearts, even Cera.

The gang gasped and smiled in relief after walking through a cavern. Lying in front of them is a huge valley where mountains are surrounding a huge area full of trees, a lake and a bunch of other cybernetic buildings and sceneries. They're here…The Great Valley Square.

"Hurray!" Ducky cheers. "We did it! We found the Great Valley! Yup yup yup!"

Littlefoot smiles proudly. "We did it together!"

"Well what are we waiting for?" Cera turns to the others with her usual cocky grin. "Let's go and find our Operators!"

The whole gang agrees and they take off on a mad dash to the Square, their faces beaming as they know they will be with their Operators again soon. They just can't wait to see them again and the smile on their faces.

In the real world a group of five kids are running to the SciLab building from the front park of the building. "C'mon, we're almost there!" Jason shouts back to his friends as he takes the lead.

"I really hope they're safe at the square!" Silus hopes as he follows right behind Jason.

Malory slightly rolls her eyes. "Of course they will! Cera's with them after all!"

Stephen chuckles and goes for an old joke of the group's as they run past the SciLab building and to one of the warehouses behind it. "Yeah right, our Navi's savior, the one who can take on a thousand viruses at once and live without a scratch."

"Who asked you!" Malory spits out as she looked over her shoulder at Stephen.

Sally giggles with a shake of her head, such an old joke and it still gets under her skin. "All right you two, that's enough."

The whole gang couldn't help but laugh. Now this is the way it should be, banning together when the going gets tough and laughing about their past and each other along the way, to keep their spirits high and their courage intact to overcome anything.

They continue running toward one of the warehouses behind the SciLab building where they announced they would hold a gigantic server to the Great Valley Square with hundreds of jack-in ports for people to jack their PETs in and try to contact their Navis. If Jason is right and their Navis are in the Square they can return to their PETs right there!

They reach the warehouse and stop a few feet from it, seeing a lot of people standing in front of the server with their PETs jacked in to find their Navis. Jason could see the Orund Brothers in there searching for their Navis. While they may be jerks their Navis don't deserve to be in such a dangerous situation and he hopes that they will find their Navis soon. He could also see classmates of his searching for their Navis as well. So many Navis gone missing in the network…

"Jason!" Jason snaps from his thoughts and spotted Sally waving at him from the server, apparently she found free ports. "There are two ports over here! C'mon!"

Jason runs up to her and takes out his PET as he stands in front of the server. He looks at Sally who smiles at him as she holds out her PET's jack-in cable. "Well?"

Jason gulps as he stretches out his PET's jack-in cable, nervous about jacking in and figuring out the truth. "All right…Here goes nothing…" He jacks his PET into the server and looks into his screen. He presses a few buttons on the PET to try to communicate with his Navi. "Littlefoot? Are you there?"

No response. Jason and Sally look at each other. Could it be that they didn't make it? Sally jacks her PET into the server and opens her communication line. "Ducky? Can you hear me?"

No response. Could they have been fooling themselves? Could it be that their Navis never stood a chance and have been deleted? No, it can't be. They're strong, they can overcome anything together. Not even being alone in the network can take them down. Something must be wrong with their communication line. They just can't be…Gone…

"…_S…J…On…Ja…On…Jaso…Jason! Jason!"_

Jason and Sally gasped. Littlefoot! They both look into Jason's PET and practically hold the machine up to their faces. "Littlefoot!" Jason exclaims happily. "I can hear you! Littlefoot!"

"_Hahah! Jason! Oh my gosh, you won't believe how happy I am to hear your voice!"_

Jason started to shed tears of happiness as a communication window opens in his PET and reveals Littlefoot's smiling face looking back at him. To hear his NetNavi's voice again, it felt like he's in some kind of dream where he'll wake up at any given moment. He missed Littlefoot so much, he couldn't bared the thought of losing him as well. "Littlefoot…" He sniffs and wipes some tears away before continuing. "Is…Everyone else there with you?"

Littlefoot was about to answer when Cera, Spike, Petrie and Ducky bumped him out of the window to show themselves to Jason. _"Hello, Jason!" _Ducky waves.

"_Jason! Long time no see!"_Cera greets with her usual cocky smirk and with a wave of his hand.

"_Petrie here too!"_Petrie greets as he hovers over the entire gang.

Jason and Sally smile at seeing the entire gang present and accounted for. Sally looks over to the others and waves at them to come over. "They made it!"

Stephen and Silus look at each other and cheer, happy to hear the news of their NetNavis surviving the whole ordeal. Malory stands there with a smile on her face as she crosses her arms. "Hah, I knew they'd make it…"

As the rest of them make their way to the server Jason makes the arrangements and transfers Littlefoot back into the PET. In just a few seconds the lovable Longneck transfers into the PET and opens his eyes, his face sporting the warmest smile he could have as he's back home with Jason. Jason couldn't help but smile the same, his eyes in tears as Littlefoot's back and alive with him. "Littlefoot…"

Littlefoot stares at his Operator as he too begins to shed tears of happiness. He went up against the scorching red sun, he braved through hot sands, he overtook a field of lava and dominated tar pits, all of it to be back with the Operator he's grown to love like a brother. _""Jason…""_

Jason wipes tears from his face again. "Welcome back, Littlefoot…" He places his hand on his PET screen, wanting to be there with his Navi.

""_I'm home, Jason…"" _Littlefoot holds out his hand against the screen on his side, his hand pressing against the screen over Jason's hand. For a moment there, Jason could've sworn he actually felt Littlefoot's hand pressing against his. Jason looked to his side as he hears his friends' happy cheers and shouts as they all got their Navis back into their PET. After such a scare about the network being torn in two, this is the happy ending that everyone wants. Tears and laughter everywhere…

"Littlefoot!" Littlefoot turns around and smiles widely as his Navi friends gather up in their PET friend link room, all of them running to the scene. Happily Littlefoot runs toward them and the entire gang embraces each other in a group hug. It's all over; they're home and finally together. What more could they ever ask for?

_BEEP BEEP…BEEP BEEP…BEEP BEEP…_

Jason heard his PET's phone going off. He quickly answers the phone, immediately expecting it to be Kaden. "Hello, Kaden? Great news, we-"

"_I'm sorry, but I'm not Kaden."_

Jason's gaze turned cold and serious. He was disappointed that the caller isn't Kaden, but who exactly is it? He doesn't recognize this voice at all. "Who is this?" He inquires. The unknown voice of the caller also got the attention of the others as they all gather up around Jason.

"_Forget about that. I want you to head to the warehouses in SciLab, warehouse number B5."_

Jason arches an eyebrow. Warehouse number B5? What for? Jason glances at each of his friends, none of them seem to have an idea who the caller is. "What for?" Malory butts into the conversation. "We just got back our Navis and you're toying with us?"

"_I congratulate you on reuniting with your NetNavis, but you really must head to this warehouse. Someone here needs your…Special care."_

Jason's eyes widen. This caller couldn't possibly be referring to Kaden, could it? Jason looked back into his PET to hear the phone being hung up. Warehouse B5…

"Littlefoot." Jason begins, starting to sound a bit scared. "Can you find me warehouse B5?"

Littlefoot nods. _""All right."" _He opens up a map of the SciLab area and immediately finds the warehouse. He then displays the area to his Operator. _""Here it is. Just take a left at the end of this warehouse and it should be the fifth door to your right.""_

"I don't know about this, Jason…" Silus speaks his mind as he scratches his cheek. "It all sounds so-" But before he could finish Jason already bolted away to the warehouse. "Ah, Jason!"

Malory cursed under her breath as Jason ran off on his own again. "Dang it, Jason! You never think first before acting!"

Jason could blame that for hanging around Kaden for too long, but for now he's set on finding this warehouse. Whoever that caller was it sure scared him when it said that someone in warehouse B5 needs his special care. Jason follows Littlefoot's direction and quickly finds warehouse B5, a two story tall warehouse. Without giving it second thoughts Jason bolts through the door, ready for anything. "All right, who-" Jason's eyes widen at what he saw inside. He wasn't expecting this. "KADEN!"

Kaden is lying on the ground in front of him, his chest heaving as he seems to be very exhausted. His face is a bleeding mess; his head is bleeding and a wound over his right eye is bleeding as well. Jason covers his mouth in total shock and horror, what the heck happened? Immediately he rushes over to his friend's aid. "Oh my God! What the heck happened here? Littlefoot, tell the others to call for help! Hang in there, Kaden!"

Hidden up on the second floor Kiraa is still on the scene as she watches from the shadows as Jason helps his wounded friend. "The kid unleashed Full-Synchro…" Kiraa commented. "It's incredible how an amateur like him could've synchronized so well with that prototype of a Navi."

Back at the scene where the Sharptooth virus drowned a Navi stands at the edge of the pool of water, its hand outstretched as it scans the water. It's looking for something, but what? What could it be searching for to scan a pool of water that holds nothing?

The Navi smirks. It found it. From the deepest reaches of the pool an item starts to float up from the bottom. Slowly it emerges from the water and floats a few inches above the Navi's clawed hands. An orb of data, a very powerful orb of data at that as it sparks and glows brightly.

"The core data of the Mega Virus…" The Navi speaks. "HTTP is one step closer to the completion of the project…" The Navi transfers the data to wherever the Navi jacked in from. "Master Doppler will be pleased to have this program…"

The Navi walks away from the pool of water and looks up, chuckling to itself. "Soon the world will fear HTTP…Once the Sharptooth's Heart Project is revived and fully completed the whole world will drop to its knees and beg…"

* * *

"On the next chapter of Land Before Time: Battle Network!"

"Man, my head hurts…What exactly happened to me back there?"

"Kaden, out of the bed and get to SciLabs! I just got an email about them wanting to see you!"

"Really?...Hey! Wait a minute, why am I suddenly locked in this room?"

"Kaden! An HTTP Navi is invading the SciLab mainframe!"

"Next time on Land Before Time: Battle Network: 'The Mystery of Full-Synchro!'"

"Rex, do you have any idea what happened to Kiraa and me back at that warehouse?"

"Dang it, Kaden. Not in the middle of virus busting!"


	10. The Mystery of Full Synchro!

Back! Back you lynching mobs! I swear I didn't mean to keep this story without an update for almost a year! Too much going on ever since I last updated! Writer's block, the college work, then that winter vacation to Denver, I didn't mean to slack off! But here it is, the ninth chapter! It's another long read to compensate almost a year of no updates. Enjoy!

* * *

"Rex!"

Kaden didn't know where he was, but wherever he was he's there with Rex. The young man looked in horror as his NetNavi laid on his hands and knees in front of him, his shoulder pads cracked and broken and the upper left of his head was horribly burned. He was breathing heavily and was in deep pain, he couldn't take such agony.

"Huff…Huff…" Rex breathed heavily from the agony. "It burns…Hurts so much…"

"Don't move, Rex!" Kaden advised to his NetNavi. "I'll get some help and then we'll-" A sudden pain interrupted him. His eyes widened as the pain intensified on the upper left of his head, and soon enough blood started trickling down his head. "Aaah…Aaaagh!" He yelled in agony as he clutched his wound. When did he…?

"It hurts…" Rex winced again, and slowly his body began to disintegrate. He was de-rezzing, another way to refer to deletion.

"Rex!" Kaden shouted in horror as he witnesses his Navi slowly dying. Clutching his wound with one hand he reaches out toward Rex with his others. "Hang in there! Don't go! Rex! Rex!"

But there was nothing that could be done, Rex was gone…

"REEEEEEEEX!"

Kaden woke up in a sweat and sat up, his hand reaching out toward nothing. He stared at nothing until he snapped out of it and realized it was only just a dream. "It was just a dream…"

But something was not right; he couldn't see anything through his right eye. Suddenly he felt a sudden pain to his head and he immediately dropped back on his bed, clutching his head from the huge pain. He rubbed himself and realized he had some bandages around his head and over his right eye. What happened to him…?

""_Kaden! Kaden!""_

Kaden blinked and smiled. Rex! He looked to his left and beamed to see his PET on the night desk next to his bed, the screen aiming toward him and Rex safe and sound inside looking happily at him. _""Thank goodness you're finally awake! I was worried sick about you!""_

Kaden stared at his Navi. Worried about him? Now that he thinks about it, what _did _happened to him? All he remembered was battling against Kiraa and her Navi, Grayscale. The rest was a blank. "Rex…" Kaden began as he fingered the bandages around his head. "What happened?"

Rex blinked at his Operator. _""You mean you don't remember? Kaden, we were battling against Grayscale and then something happened that made me incredibly powerful! But after the battle was over I couldn't get through to you. They told me you got hurt and passed out. They took you out of SciLab and to the hospital.""_

That explains the bandages. "So that's what happened…" Kaden tried to think back, but the farthest he can remember was when Rex was severely damaged by Grayscale, nothing else after that. "But I don't remember much of anything; I don't really remember how I got hurt."

""_It's funny.""_ Kaden looked back to his PET to Rex. The Sharptooth Navi was thinking back and scratching his cheek. _""When I suddenly powered up and defeated Grayscale, I felt something. I don't know from where that extra power came from but I felt like someone was there with me giving me his strength…"" _Rex then moved his paw to his chest, feeling his heartbeat. _""I felt like you were there with me, Kaden, helping me fight against Grayscale. Your courage, your spirit, your strength…""_

"My…Strength?" How could that be? He's in the real world and Rex's in the Cyber World, how could he have felt him through the PET? "Well, now that you mention it…" Kaden began to remember something. "I kind of felt the same thing before I blacked out."

Rex was surprised upon hearing this. _""You did?""_

"Yeah. I know it's silly, but I kind of felt like I was with you too. Like I was standing right next to you and helping you stand up from that heavy damage."

""_How weird. Maybe it was just the hype of the battle that made us feel like that.""_

"Yeah, that makes sense! I mean, I sure know I was mega hyped during that battle! I mean it was awesome! For a moment there I thought we were going to lose!"

""_Still, I can't help but feel what happened was unnatural. You know, the whole spontaneous power up I received.""_

"Who cares? We kicked that Grayscale's butt!"

""_Kaden…"" _Rex was a bit worried about this. To suddenly out of nowhere attain incredible power and defeat Grayscale with one shot, there has to be something more to it. Rex began to think about it until it hit him. Back then, Grayscale underwent through something very similar to what he went through. It was something between her and Kiraa, he remembered how those two concentrated and then…

""_Full Synchro…?"" _Rex whispered, recalling what Kiraa shouted before Grayscale increased in power.

* * *

Hours after waking up the doctors of the Garden City Hospital kept checking Kaden's status and health for any other injuries and keeping tabs on his recovery. He was only there for a few hours before the doctor decided to let him leave, seeing his recovery complete.

Kaden's friends were there ever since he woke up, keeping him company and pulling jokes about Kaden having a thick skull at his injury's expense. Typical, but that's how Kaden loves his friends.

Now, Kaden is sitting on his bed as the doctor began to take off the bandages from around his head. He was unconscious at the hospital for about two days, must've been quite a bruise for him to be out that long. As the bandages came off Kaden slowly opened and blinked his right eye, glad to see he wasn't blind or anything on that eye.

"There you go, Mr. Homari." The doctor began after removing all the bandages. "Good as new."

Kaden smiled and rubbed his head, happy to feel his cranium again. "Everything feels fine."

"Haha, alright!" Stephen exclaimed, happy to see Kaden good as new. It was kind of hard on him to see his friend all hurt in the hospital like this.

Sally smiled and nodded. "I'm so relieved to see that you're alright."

"Heh," Malory remarked as she stood by the door of the room. "Not even a bump to his empty noggin is going to keep him down."

Kaden chuckled as he rubbed his head from Malory's remark. As he rubbed his head he suddenly felt something that he shouldn't have. He looked at himself in the mirror on the wall behind him and realized his hair was shorter; the long hair he had that he used to tie in a ponytail was gone. "D-Did you really have to cut my hair?" Kaden inquired, looking kind of down his long hair was gone.

Silus was the one to answer. "I'm afraid they had to, Kaden. They had to get to the wound somehow to help you."

"Besides, I think you look better with shorter hair." Jason smirked as he teased his old friend.

"But…But…But I _liked_ my hair that way!" Kaden sighed in defeat as he kept on staring at himself in the mirror. He didn't look the same without his long hair, and it was one of those things that gave him his personality. He gave a military salute to himself in the mirror with his right arm over his chest. "Sayonara, my long hair. I salute you."

Rex chuckled as he rubbed the back of his head, same ol' Kaden…

* * *

"The Mega Virus has been deleted?"

Master Doppler, the professor of the HTTP, stands in front of the leader of the net criminal group. Behind him stand three members of the group: Oda, Netra and Akira, each of their NetNavis are from the Sharptooth Generation, all thanks to the professor.

"Way to go, old man!" Netra barked in anger to Doppler. "I knew we shouldn't have trusted you with this one!"

"Even Netra could've done a better job than you, old timer!" Akira spat out to insult Doppler.

"Silence!" The leader slammed his fist onto the chair's grip. He was clearly angry, and the other fools' outburst and anger aren't making it any better. He sits back in his chair and presses a few buttons on the chair's left grip where the main computer's controller is integrated. From behind him a holographic computer monitor lights up, revealing the orb of data Doppler's Navi scanned out from the lake where the Mega Virus met its end at the hands of Jason and his friends' NetNavis. "If you believe he failed, then what do you think from where he found this?"

"W-What is that?" Oda questions, a bit in awe at the look of the thing.

""_Egh, I sense incredible power from that thing…""_ Netra's Navi, Drone, comments as he feels the raw power emitting from the orb.

""_I've never sensed such a lot of power."" _Oda's Navi, Bull, comments with a shudder.

"W-What? That overgrown volleyball?" Netra exclaims after he took out his PET and faced his Navi.

"Hmhm, what idiots…" Doppler insulted the three people standing behind him. He then turned to the three clueless people with a smirk. "This is only one of a few pieces of the puzzle for our goal, gentlemen! This is what gave the Mega Virus its devastating power!" He then turns to the monitor and looks at the orb with great interests. "Look at it…The ultimate power source, a creation from the Sharptooth's Heart Project…With this; we will attain total dominance over the world!"

Oda blinks, realizing what this could mean. "So basically you can create extremely powerful Navis and viruses from it?"

"No, at least not yet." The leader replied. "The Sharptooth Core is only useless by itself. Like this we cannot do anything with it. It's basically nothing more than just paperweight at the moment."

"Then what else do we need?" Akira asks with a shrug.

"Simple," The HTTP leader begins. "Our next step is to steal the remains of the Project from the SciLab Mainframe. However, they have sealed it in an isolated chip in their laboratories, and so a heist like that won't be easy."

"Hmhm, luckily I know a way to gain easy access to it." Doppler chuckled as he gloated. "Please, allow me to arrange a little 'visit' to the laboratories and I will have the rests of the Project."

Akira narrowed his eyes and gritted his teeth. He hated how this professor is the favorite of the group. Just because he's a scientist and can whip up some great programs for the group it doesn't mean he's better than them. "Sir!" Akira barked as he took a step forward. "I volunteer to steal the chip!"

"Pft, you?" Doppler couldn't help but chuckle at the man's preposterous proposal. "Don't make me laugh, how can you possibly steal it, let alone find it."

"Oh just because you were once a part of the Project you think you're so high and mighty, aren't you old man?" Akira spat out, angered by Doppler's arrogance and attitude. "Anyone can hack into the SciLab Mainframe and find that stupid chip! I've hacked into it plenty of times!"

The leader hums to himself as he rests his elbow on his seat's armrest, supporting his head as he rests it on his closed fist, pondering about the idea. On one hand, he has Professor Doppler assuring the theft of the Project remains, gaining him more information and needed tools to further his plans. But on the other he has Akira volunteering for the theft, one of his most successful henchmen despite being a bit on the psychotic side. Akira could do a lot of damage, making another grand net terrorist attack, but he wants that chip intact. And he will not accept failure!

"I have a better idea…" The leader grins.

* * *

A few hours later and Kaden was released from the hospital. As he stepped out to the sunshine he shielded his eyes from the scorching sun, his eyes adjusting after being indoors for quite a while. As he looked around he noticed the damage from the Mega Virus, street posts still broken and some glass still littered around the street. That virus did a number on this city, at least it's gone.

"Some sight, huh?"

Kaden turns his left to his friend Jason. "I can't believe a virus was able to make this much damage. It'll take months for Garden City to recover from this."

Kaden nods in agreement. There must be billions of dollars in damages all over the city. So many damages the Officials probably don't know where to start. He looks ahead to see Sally and Stephen standing by the sidewalk and talking to each other, probably about the recent incidents and stuff, we don't know, Kaden isn't listening or focusing on what they're talking about.

"But the Officials took care of them, right?" Kaden inquires; he's still out in the dark about the Mega Virus' whereabouts.

"Littlefoot told me." Jason answered to his best friend, his voice stern and informal. "The Mega Virus was heading toward the Great Valley Square, but Littlefoot and the others put a stop to him."

Kaden jumped and turned to his best friend with widened eyes, shocked and surprised at what he just heard. "What? Really? Your Navis deleted it?"

""_Amazing…""_ Rex cooes, impressed upon hearing what his friends have done by themselves. _""How did they do it?""_

"They lured it to a cyber lake on the Network and managed to push a cyber boulder on top of its head, drowning it in the water." Jason gritted his teeth as a slight pain began to return to his heart, but he pushed it away and remained calm. "I guess I'm happy that they did, they saved the Great Valley Square and the Network from further damage."

"Whoa, amazing." Kaden is in awe. Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, Spike, Petrie, they all deleted the Mega Virus without their Net Ops and with no Battle Chips. That's so unreal, a victory of epic proportions! And Kaden is hating himself for missing such an event. But then again he was helping the people at SciLab and he was probably unconscious when the whole battle happened. "You must be proud of your Navi!"

""_Haha, yeah."_" Rex nods in agreement with a smile. _""To delete a virus as powerful as this one was all by themselves, it's proof of how strong they are when together.""_

"Yeah, I am, really."

Kaden frowned, Jason sounded a bit spaced out when he spoke just now. He still must be thinking about his mother and everything that has happened lately; that stupid virus, all of these incidents and loss of lives. Garden City will never be the same.

""_Jason…""_ Littlefoot called out. Jason pulled out his PET from the holster on his waist and looked into the screen toward his Navi. Littlefoot was looking a bit sad, but he tries to be strong for his Operator. _""I don't mean to rush you, but we have someplace we gotta go now.""_

"Yeah, okay." With a nod Jason puts his PET away into his holster and turns his head to Kaden. "I…gotta go. Got some things I have to do before tomorrow."

"Oh…Okay." Kaden nods in understanding and waves his goodbye as he watches Jason take his leave. He looks on as Jason bids farewell to the others and walks down the sidewalk to the right, disappearing into the distance.

"It…Makes you feel sorry for him, doesn't it?" Sally asks as she made her way up to Kaden and stands next to him. "Losing his mother, almost losing Littlefoot; it was a tough time for all of us."

""_I felt so helpless.""_ Rex adds with a deep sigh. _""Jason asked me to call for help through his mother's GPS system in her car, but when I jacked in the Network was already destroyed, my calls wouldn't go through.""_

""_Poor Jason…""_ Ducky comments with a sad tone in her voice. _""I have never seen him so sad, no no no…""_

"He tries to be brave, but you can tell he's suffering." Sally continues as she lightly grabbed her left arm with her right hand, looking sadly at the direction Jason left. "He always lived with his mother. His father is always traveling on business, he's almost never home."

Kaden nods as his eyes lower to the ground. He knows all of this, he has heard it before. "Yeah, his grandparents also live out of town. They sometimes come to visit but because they're so far away they usually leave their visits for special occasions."

""_Do…Do you think Jason will have to move away with his grandparents?""_ Ducky asks in a worried tone. Now there's a question Kaden is afraid of knowing the answer to. Jason has been like a brother to him, and the thought of him moving away scares him a lot. He doesn't want to lose him.

Sally shook her head and gave a soft smile. "No, he's staying. But I did hear his grandparents decided to move into Jason's house here in Garden City." She moves her head to Stephen and Silus as they chat with each other by a bench in the front garden lawn of the hospital. "His grandparents know Jason has lived here his whole life, all of his friends live here, everything he cares about. They know they can't let him leave all of this behind, so I heard they decided to move over here instead of having Jason move out."

"Really?" You could tell in Kaden's voice that he was relieved to hear that his friend isn't going anywhere. He took a sigh of relief and smiled a bit. "Well, that's a relief."

Sally smiled and nodded in response at Kaden before moving her eyes back to the boys. She continued as she watched on as Malory walked up to the boys after getting a can of soda from a vending machine. "I couldn't really imagine how things would've been if Jason really had to leave. Things just wouldn't be the same, you know? He's been a good friend to us all, we would really miss him."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. I mean, I knew Jason since we were in Kindergarten together, I really couldn't imagine life without him."

""_Considering Jason has been like Kaden's coach.""_ Rex adds in a teasing manner. _""Kaden would've been obviously lost in life without him all these years.""_

Kaden flinches from the teasing and quickly whips out his PET from his holster and glares into his PET at his Net Navi. "Hey, have you been talking to my mom lately? I can take care of myself and be responsible!"

Rex chuckled and continues teasing with a grin. _""That definitely hasn't shown ever since you had me, Kaden.""_

Kaden fumes a bit and begins telling off his Net Navi, leaving Sally to laugh at the situation Kaden's laziness has gotten him into now. Even Ducky finds some laughter in this situation as she stands close to Rex in their PET's Friend Link Room. Now this is the kind of friendship they're made of, banding together and sticking close to each other when the going gets tough and finding happy times during the worse situations.

"Hee hee, oh you boys." Sally giggles.

"Hey!" Malory's loud shouts startle Kaden and Sally. They look at Malory as she finishes her soda and throws the can into a nearby trash bin; man does her voice travels when she screams. "Are you two ever going to move from there? I thought we agreed to help my dad with the repairs and clean-up of his shop after getting that knuckle-head standing next to you out of the hospital!"

Sally giggles and waves at Malory. "Okay! We're going!"

Kaden blinks after hearing that certain word Malory used to refer to him. "K-Knuckle-head? Does she mean me?"

"Hee hee, oh you know Malory. Come on, let's go."

Kaden smiles and nods at Sally as he puts away his PET. As he took a few steps with her down to the sidewalk toward the others he suddenly remembered something and stopped in his tracks, digging into his pockets and pulling out one of his Battle Chips; His Ducky chip. "Oh, Sally." He called out, making Sally stop walking and turn toward him. "Um, I wanna thank you again for giving me this Battle Chip."

Sally saw the Battle Chip in Kaden's hand and she smiled upon seeing it, she didn't think Kaden was going to use it. After all, Kaden always talks about powerful Battle Chips; she didn't think he would've been interested in using it. "Oh, that. Hee hee, don't mention it."

"I gotta say I'm very impressed with it." Kaden continued as he held out the Battle Chip to look at it. "I never thought a Battle Chip like this could be homebrewed, how did you do it?"

Sally smiled to herself upon seeing Kaden taking an interest to her work on the chip. "It wasn't easy. I made it with a program my father gave me from his work."

"Oh yeah, your father's a programmer, isn't he?"

Sally nods. "That's right. He writes programs for a company here on Garden City. You know the one, where they develop and sell security programs for Battle Chips, servers, personal computers."

Kaden thinks for a few seconds before answering with a nod. "Oh yeah, the North Star Antivirus and Security Company. I heard they're top rated for their antivirus and firewall products." He looks at the Battle Chip Sally gave him and thinks for a moment. "So your dad wrote a program to make a Battle Chip like this one? Hey, maybe you could give me a copy of that program; I would really like to try my hand at making a Rex Battle Chip."

"A Rex Battle Chip?" Rex mutters to himself as he scratches his cheek in the PET. He lowers his head a bit as he thinks about a copy image of himself being summoned from a Battle Chip and chuckles to himself, finding the idea a bit awkward for Kaden to use the chip and having to fight alongside a copy of himself.

Sally giggled at Kaden's request, how could she refuse? "Well, it might take time. But I guess I can burn a copy of the program on a minidisk and give it to you."

"Oh sweet! Thanks Sally!"

"Hey!" Malory hollered out to them again. "Sometime today!"

Kaden and Sally looked over at Malory, seeing the patience draining out from her. They giggled a bit, finding it a bit humorous. After a little of laughter Kaden turned to Sally and pointed his thumb out to the others. "All right, let's go, Sally. Before Malory blows a gasket."

Sally nods in response and the two of them start out on a run toward Malory and the others. The group of friends together hurried down the sidewalks to the Shopping District where Haruko's shop resides. The shop was a mess due to the disaster, but with good teamwork and a little elbow grease the shop can be returned back to tip-top shape. It might take a good while, but Garden City will soon be brought back to normal. Already the streets are filled with cars and trucks full of people willing to help to restore the city. Technicians are coming in and out of stores and homes to begin repairs on servers and networks, Net Police are guiding traffic and making sure computers and other machines are free of viruses. It's proving to be a long and agonizing process of scanning and moving debris and piling up the broken pieces of electronics, but the citizens of Garden City are doing their best to bring their beloved city back to its prime.

That's all Jason sees as he continues his walk down the sidewalk, his head turning left and right seeing the willing citizens working together to build the city back to normal. But he knows no matter how much work they put into it, the city will never be the same again. Never…

""_Jason…""_ Littlefoot begins to speak out from his PET. _""I'm sorry about…Well, you know. I should've been there for you…""_

Jason sighs and reaches down to his PET. "It's…It's okay, Littlefoot." He held up his PET to look at the screen to his Net Navi. "You were stranded in the Network; there was nothing you could have done…"

""_Still I…I can't help but feel horrible…""_ Littlefoot bowed his head down in sadness, his eyes shut as he tries to keep the tears from getting out. _""I'm a Net Navi, one of my functions is to keep my Operator and any human I can safe from harm, yet I couldn't do anything to save my own Net Navi mother…If only I were stronger to stop that Sharptooth virus when I had the chance before it made even more damage…""_

"Stop it, Littlefoot!" Jason almost shouted as he stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, gritting his teeth as the memories are coming back to him. "There was nothing you could do, you hear me? Even if you were with me, even if you were strong enough to take out the Sharptooth virus, the damage was already done. It was…Just a load of bad luck…"

Littlefoot was slightly shocked at Jason's outburst; it wasn't like him to lash out like that. But then again he had just lost his mother, so it's understandable he's stressed like this. Littlefoot sighed and nodded. _""I'm sorry…I guess you're right, there was nothing we could've done…""_ He rubbed his arm and turned his head to his Operator before continuing. _""A-Anyway, we better get going. Your grandparents are due to arrive in a few hours and we still have a few things to do before they arrive.""_

Jason nods and puts away his PET. His grandparents. He hasn't seen them for more than two years now. He always had a good time whenever they came for a visit, always with gifts and just going out having a good time. And this time, they're not coming for just a visit. They decided to move in with Jason. His father is always out of town, and with this arrangement Jason wouldn't have to join his father in all his travels, much less having to force his father to resign his position for a more comfortable one that always has him in Garden City.

""_I…Gotta admit, Jason. I'm rather excited about seeing our grandparents again.""_ Littlefoot comments with a hint of happiness in his tone.

"Yeah, me too…"

""…_I just wish it was under better circumstances.""_

As Jason resumes his way things in the Network are slowly being worked on. It'll take weeks, maybe even months to repair the huge crack on the ground that was formed by the Mega Virus. Along the crack worker Net Navis, Spiketails, are currently at work to commence the repair of the Network.

"All right, Spiketails!" A larger Net Navi Spiketail, the one leading the group of repairers, shouts out to his crew. "The damage is extensive and we're a little bit behind schedule. I want everyone to share their workload to finish this section a bit sooner."

The crew called out in agreement as they continue their work without interruption, but as they're busy with their work someone is standing not too far from the crew watching on. The watcher's eyes glare a little at the workers with a soft growl. The watcher is a Sharptooth Generation Net Navi, an edition from the Sickleclaw series. He's brown with a light-brown color from his lower jaw down to his stomach all the way to the tip of his tail.

On both his arms he dons dark-brown gauntlet-like accessories with razor sharp claws at the tip of his three fingers. On both his legs he dons dark-brown leg armors from the knee down to the ankle, his feet exposed with razor sharp talons on the tip of his four toes. He also dons black spiky shoulder pads and a thick black line from his forehead down behind his head and down his back and tail, where stripes arch horizontally half a foot long at one foot apart between them, each stripe with a sharp spike protruding from them. His chest dons a crest with a Z mark with two lines over the letter over his left pectoral.

"That virus did a pretty good job ruining the Network…" The Sickleclaw Navi speaks, his voice intimidating, low and a bit on the raspy side. "Look at them…Trying to repair this mess…" He sighs and looks up, addressing to his Operator. "How much longer am I supposed to stand here?"

""_Until we get that darn signal to start the operation. I really can't believe it. Why do I have to listen to that old bag? Sometimes I can't believe our boss.""_

"You're as ticked off about it as I am." The Sickleclaw comments as he crosses his arms. "I can't wait until I get in there and delete those pathetic Navis."

""_All in due time.""_

* * *

In the technician rooms and corridors of SciLab the employees are moving as fast as they can. Their job schedules are extremely busy thanks to the Mega Virus. Between restoring backups, repairing machines and inspecting cables and connections, there's no time for rest.

In the conference room in the middle of SciLab a group of scientists are in a meeting discussing about the restoration of the Network. The top scientists of the business are there. There's Dr. Raine, one of the top scientists who contributed to the development of Net Navis. Professor Robert, one of the main developers of the third version of the PET, the current version. Scientist Rodriguez, an elderly man who supervised the maturity of the Network and helped in developing the Network into a free-roaming environment for Net Navis. He was due to retire fifteen years ago, but he persisted in staying on the supervisor's desk to lead the new generations of scientists.

Also present is Roc, a high-ranking officer of Net Savior and the one keeping things in check in the most important operations related to the restoration of the Network. Included in the team as well is none other than Dr. Homari, developer of the new generation Battle Chips and supervisor of the development of the upcoming fourth version of the PET, and Kaden's father.

The group of scientists is sitting around a large table with a huge monitor in the middle. In the monitor displays a live feed of the Network's condition. They can see all the damage the Mega Virus has done, and they will do everything in their power to heal the wounds of the Network.

"This is definitely a Class AA disaster." Dr. Raine declares as she witnesses the damage. "It's going to take a lot more than our entire Repairing Unit to repair the damage within two weeks."

"We cannot possibly take longer than two weeks." Professor Robert informs to the people present. "Garden City's economy relies too much on the Network to have it down for too long. We're lucky our satellite systems are in working order, but even that isn't enough. If this goes on for much longer, we could be facing financial disaster."

"What about deploying a Flight Unit to cover the transfers over the rip in the Network?" Roc suggests. "At least until that huge gap has been repaired."

Dr. Raine replies with a shake of her head. "Negative. The rip almost acts like a black hole. The flying Navis can only fly so far over it before the strain of the destroyed data in that gap will pull them in and delete them as well."

"That's true." Dr. Homari affirms as he thinks on the situation. "The gap between one section of the Network with the other still has electrical magnetism reacting in the deeper section. Even though the activity is in the deeper part of the crevasse the further away you get from the ledge the more intense you feel that electrical pull. Eventually the Navi's frame and structure can't ignore the electrical pull at that intensity and it will suck them in to the bottom and, finally, deletion."

"Dr. Homari is right." Dr. Rodriguez comments with a nod. "It is impossible and far too dangerous to send any flying Navis over the crevasse to deliver errands. We'll just have to make do with the satellite links until the Network is operational again."

"But what can we do?" Dr. Robert inquires to Dr. Rodriguez. "You know the structure of the Network more than anyone, Dr. Robert. The damage at this magnitude simply can't be repaired within two weeks at this rate before we start suffering a financial crisis."

"Yes, I know." Dr. Rodriguez scratches his chin as he thinks. He spent his youthful years watching the Network grow and contributing to make it better and more resourceful. Now he sees what he has helped create in ruins thanks to a Mega Virus that came from who knows where. "We just need to find a way to increase our own resources." Dr. Rodriguez lifted his head and turns to his right. "Dr. Homari, how goes the progress of the fourth version PET?"

Dr. Homari looks at Dr. Rodriguez and gulps a bit. He really wasn't expecting a progress report on Project Advance, especially now of all times. "W-Well, the construction and QA of the device is still in progress. There are a few bugs to work out on the product and some more fine tunings on the Battle Chips and the device's BC Gate, but we should be seeing the alpha product within a few days if there aren't any delays."

Dr. Rodriguez nods at the report. "Hm, the sooner Project Advance is finished the better." He took a seat and referred to the group. "Now, this is how we're going to assert this massive problem. Dr. Raine, we'll need you to tune up our Net Navi forces, upgrade them to be able to perform more tasks and work on the repairs with more efficiency and speed."

Dr. Raine nods. "Understood. I'll try my best to upgrade our Repairing and Rescue Navi Units."

"Dr. Homari." Dr. Rodriguez continues. "The completion of Project Advance is very important; we need you to finish it as soon as possible. Therefore I will try my best to order as much assistant and resources as possible for your work and will prohibit anyone from interrupting you over this disaster."

Dr. Homari nods. "Y-Yes, of course. I'll do whatever it takes to finish Project Advance as soon as possible."

"Sir," Dr. Robert turns to Dr. Rodriguez with a question. "With all due respect, even with upgrades to the Repairing and Rescue Navi Units, it'll still be an almost impossible task to get the Network fully working again in two weeks time."

Dr. Rodriguez nods in understanding and turns to Dr. Robert. "I'm aware of that, professor Robert. That is why I called in at Advance Technology Incorporated in our neighboring city to send us their most brilliant scientist to aid us in the recovery of the Network." Just then the door to the conference room opens and in walks a tall male.

This man wears a grey lab coat with a red shirt underneath. He wears a pair of formal black pants and shoes. His hair as white as snow, he has a long chin and a large pointed nose. He has a friendly smile and look on his face, happy to be walking through the halls of SciLab again. "Greetings, Professor Rodriguez. It's been a while now."

"Ah, right on schedule, my friend." Dr. Rodriguez comments as he walks up to the professor and gives him a good handshake before turning to the other scientists. "This is Professor Isaac, one of our most brilliant minds in the Network Technology field. He's stationed in our neighboring city and has agreed to come lend us a hand in the recovery of the Garden City Network."

"Professor Isaac." Dr. Raine starts with admiration in her voice. "It's an honor to meet you. I'm Professor Raine. I've read so much about you and I'm a big fan of your work."

Dr. Isaac chuckles. "Why thank you, Professor Raine. It's always nice to hear admiration to my life's work from other fellow scientists." He then turns to Dr. Rodriguez with a smile. "I must say that I am honored to be requested to aid you in the restoration of the Garden City's Network. It's quite a disaster this problem of yours is."

"Professor Isaac will help us in restoring the Network with a new generation of Net Navis he has been working on for the past few years." Dr. Rodriguez briefs the other scientists on Doppler's presence. "I'm sure his newest work will help us greatly."

"Ah yes, I heard about it." Dr. Robert chimes in. "I believe it's a brand new approach to the project from ten years ago. The top scientists from our branch worked on a way to perfect the project while Professor Isaac's branch worked on another way to perfect it. If I remember correctly a fellow scientist of ours from this branch found a way to adapt to the data without having it go berserk, wasn't it?"

Isaac's eyes shone a bit upon hearing this information. He knows his branch back at his home town was working on ways to perfect the data to implement it without trouble. He wasn't directly aware that they have already found a way to stable the data and prevent it from corrupting. "I see. And have you already integrated the data into a working Navi?"

"Dr. Homari is pretty much supervising the development of the Net Navi prototype in social everyday life. Dr. Homari?"

Dr. Homari cleared his throat and stood up. "Well, our prototype Net Navi is a brand new series for the Sharptooth Generation. The Navi is in beta being tested in an everyday ordinary life as we speak, often being monitored by our computers. In fact I'm expected to call in the Net Navi today for some testing and modifications to its frame and data."

"Impressive. I won't be surprised if this branch of laboratories surpasses the other branches with its promising scientists. If you don't mind I would like to pass by your office sometime later to see this prototype of yours."

"O-Of course. I'd be honored."

Dr. Isaac nods to Dr. Homari with a smile before turning to Dr. Rodriguez. "Well, professor, shall we?"

Dr. Rodriguez nods. "Of course." He turns to the door and leaves with Dr. Isaac, but not before turning his head to Roc to let him know a little something. "Oh, before I forget. I believe there's a new report for you to look over at your desk, Roc. It's from your daughter."

"Kiraa?" Roc blinks. A report from her? That's odd, she never files a report him by herself. She usually leaves the other lower ranking Net Saviors to do the filing. Nonetheless, Roc knows. "I'll take a look at it as soon as I can."

Dr. Rodriguez nods and then he's out the door with Dr. Isaac.

""_That lady better not have gotten into trouble again.""_ A low Net Navi voice speaks from Roc's green PET.

* * *

"Nnnngh! Grrrgh…Heavy…" Kaden grunts as he drags a huge bag of broken appliances and scrap down a sidewalk. He grunts and pulls at the bag with all his might as he intends on taking the bag to the Garden City Dumping Grounds, a place where its employees recycle parts and destroy anything useless. Garden City tries to be very eco-friendly and recycle anything they can.

""_Kaden…""_ Rex sighs with a bit of worry. _""You shouldn't drag the bag like that; you'll damage the plastic covering.""_

"Nnngh…If I had the Hulk's strength I would carry this no problem." Kaden grunts between his teeth as he struggles to get the bag moving. "If you think…I'm going to break my back carrying this…You're…Mistaking…Grugh…Besides…You're more worried about the bag than my back…?"

""_I'm just worried about…""_ In a sudden sound of a rip, the bag's underside rips from all the dragging and out from the hole falls out a few pieces and appliances the bag was holding in. _""That…""_

Kaden turns his head to the sound of the rip and couldn't believe at what he's seeing. "Awww maaaaaan!" He groans and drops to his hands and knees collecting together all of the parts and pieces that have fallen out, gritting his teeth in a little frustration. "Dang it! Now how am I going to get all of this to the dumps now? Why didn't you say anything, Rex?"

""_I did say something about it, but you just brushed me off.""_

"How was I supposed to know when you said plastic covering you meant the bag might rip?"

""_It's common sense that when you drag bags you should suspect the bottom is going to rip eventually.""_

"That's beside the point!"

""_Don't get mad at me; use your head a little more. I can't always be there to think for you.""_

"But it's your job as my Net Navi!"

""_Hey, I'm here to help you with some things whether it'd be your homework or network purposes, I'm not your butler or slave.""_

"Agh! What's the point of having a Net Navi if he can't even stick by you and help you remember and think of these things…?"

""_To help their Operators grow mentally and independent with responsibility instead of having them being lazy by depending on their Net Navis all the time! I just don't want you to continue being lazy!""_

Getting angered by their argument Kaden grips a piece of metal he just picked up and chucks it to the ground as he stood up and grabbed his PET with great force. In an outraged manner he pulled it out from his holster and glares into the screen to his Net Navi. "Good lord, you're so annoying with all your nagging! Who programmed you anyway? Jo Frost?"

In an angered rage Rex screamed so loudly that his head would've practically popped out from the PET screen. _""Your father, that's who!""_

Kaden's eyes widened in surprise, in shock about what he just heard. His father? He programmed Rex? Kaden suspected he just supervised on the basic programming on Rex's features considering the branch he's in focuses on upgrades and basic programming. He had no idea his father was given the privilege of programming Rex's main core and basic personalities. That's quite a chore to do and only handled to the skilled professors and scientists. He had no idea his father took part in Navi programming. "My…My dad?" Instead of softening up Kaden's glare went a bit narrower and shouted something harsh. "Yeah well I wish he would've programmed you better and with a different personality!"

Rex gasped at the insult but glared back at his Operator. It was the last straw. "Fine! Let's see how you do without me!"

"Fine! I will!"

"Fine!" With that Rex himself turned off the Navi screen, leaving Kaden behind with an empty screen of his PET desktop. Fine, if Kaden is so tired of him trying to mean well, let's see how far he'll get without him.

Kaden scoffs in anger and puts away his PET back into his holster and goes back to gathering the mess he made. The hole is big enough for the little parts to fall out, but if he keeps dragging it like this it'll get bigger. What to do…If he only had a wagon or something…

_BEEP BEEP…BEEP BEEP…BEEP BEEP…BEEP BEEP…_

"Hm?" Kaden looks around at the sound of the beeps. Was there a working device in the bag mixed up with the broken ones? Kaden presses his ear against the bag to try to hear if it is coming from the bag. Nothing…

_BEEP BEEP…BEEP BEEP…BEEP BEEP…_

Kaden shakes his head. Duh; his PET. So stupid…Wait, why didn't Rex let him know? Oh, right. They're not speaking to each other.

Kaden takes out his PET and looks at the top right corner of the screen to see a little envelope icon flashing. Looks like someone sent him an email. Usually this is where Kaden would expect Rex to show him what the email contains, but considering they're not speaking Kaden manually goes through the menus and opens his inbox. "Dad…?" Another email from his father? This is his second email in two days. Opening it, he reads what the email says…

_SUB: Hello, Kaden_

_FROM: Dr. Homari_

_Hello, Kaden. I'm happy to hear from the Net Police that you and your mother are all right. I was so worried ever since the Network Disaster. I heard you helped with some of the nuclear plants outside of SciLab. I'm proud of you, Kaden, but please do not try to put yourself in danger like that again. Please leave the dangerous events to the professionals._

_Anyway, on topic about this email. Are you free today? Could you come over to SciLab? I want to look over your PET and Navi to make sure everything's all right._

"Hm…" Kaden hums to himself. To look over his PET and Rex? How lucky, he can talk to him to edit his personality so he can stop being so naggy. But hey, a free visit to see his father! He doesn't have that kind of opportunity every day!

"All right!" With an excited grin Kaden puts away his PET and takes off in a dash toward the direction of SciLab, completely forgetting the bag and leaving it behind in the middle of the sidewalk. Rex almost stood up from sitting in his PET room to tell Kaden about the bag he forgot, but he stopped and shrugged it off, sitting back down on the ground where he was. Kaden doesn't want to hear him, doesn't want him to nag him again, so leave him alone. Anything that happens is not his problem.

Kaden rushed as fast as his legs could carry him, excited that he'll see his father again after so many months. His friends know how much he misses him, how he would sometimes find himself on Christmas mornings with his father absent because of work. How much would he want to come home more often, to see his face and talk to him about school and his friends. But he understands his excuse, after all SciLab scientists have pretty tight schedules.

But then Kaden wondered. What does he want with Rex exactly? Maybe it's to check for bugs like the email said. After all, the letter that came with the PET said he was a new series that was created. But then again, what's so different about him from other Meat-Eater Generation Navis that were created with Leaf-Eater data? Maybe it has to do with that black scar over Rex's right eye? Or maybe it's about that Custom program Rex has? Chip Memory, was it? Whatever the reason, Rex is basically his free pass to visit his dad!

It didn't take him more than twenty minutes to get to SciLab on foot. He looked at the building and smiled a bit, getting excited to be able to see his dad again after so long. "SciLab…" Kaden muttered; the building where Battle Chips and PETs are researched and developed. He smiled widely and made his way to the front doors of the building, the automatic doors sliding open just for him as he steps foot into the building.

It's still the same building as it was a few months ago; the reception desk to his left just as he entered, to the waiting corner full of comfortable seats and cushions to his right; although this place has seen better days. A lot of employees and scientists are moving at fast paces in the hallways with paperwork and equipment, most probably to restore the Network after that disaster yesterday. He wonders if it's such a good idea to come here when everyone's so busy. But then again, it was his father that called him to SciLab. Now if he could get someone to help him find his laboratory…

"Kaden Homari?"

Kaden turned his head to his left and spots a young man standing a few feet from him looking at his direction. That's odd; he doesn't know this man, much less given him his name. "Um, yeah that's me. And you are?"

"I was told that you'd be here." The young man explained himself. "I was given the order to lead you to the test labs by Dr. Homari."

"Homari? You mean my dad?"

"Yes. Please, this way."

The young man turns and walks down a hall into the building, his lab coat trailing back from the sudden turn. Kaden quickly follows behind, eager to see his father again. As the two men walk down the hallways it was very evident SciLab was heavily damaged as well. You could see boxes outside the doors full of broken computer parts and monitors, evidence of small fires and smokes. It was quite disturbing to see once an advance building demolished into ruins with broken computer parts everywhere. Kaden would every once in a while catch glimpses in rooms with open doors to spot Operators with their PETs out working in the internal networks of computers and servers that survived.

As they made their way to the testing labs Kaden could feel his heart pounding. He's nervous; so nervous about seeing his father again after so many months. But why would he be nervous about seeing his own father again? Is it because he's six months older? Or is it because he's going to show him Rex, his new Net Navi? Is it because he's worried if his father doesn't think he's old enough or good enough to have his own Net Navi if he sees something wrong with him?

He looks down at his PET and goes to grab it but soon takes his hand back. Rex probably still doesn't want to talk to him after that argument back at the alley, and to be honest Kaden is still a bit sour at his Navi's attitude of trying to make him into a perfect kid or something to do everything right. They haven't even been together for a week and they're already at each other's throat.

After a walk down the hallway and up a flight of stairs later, the young man stopped by a door, prompting Kaden to stop as well. "Will you please excuse me, Mr. Homari?" The man excuses himself as he opens the door to walk inside. "I just need to drop a folder here for a moment; it'll only take a second."

Kaden nods in response as he watches the man walk into the room and closing the door behind him. The silence was a bit awkward, with everyone working on the repairs and maintenance there's not a soul in the hallway. Well yeah, you can hear some chatter from the people in the rooms, but nothing interesting. He idly takes a few steps down the hallway to hear the mutters of the building to have something to do. But then…

"What's the diagnosis on that one, Asho?"

That voice simply made Kaden stop cold in his tracks. It was too familiar. And it made his blood run cold and the hair on the back of his neck stand. He recognizes that voice anywhere.

"It's pretty bad, this system is done for. Booster can't even get through to the main components of its network."

Kaden follows the voices to a door and takes a peak into the room. He sees a young man wearing some black clothing, probably around his 20s. Next to him though was standing someone Kaden recognizes all too well. Kiraa.

Asho sighs as he unplugs his PET. "No doubt, this one is busted too. This is really bad, Kiraa. We're losing a lot of money as we keep finding busted computers."

Kiraa didn't seem faced from the news. "It's a loss, I know. But there's nothing else we can do. We just got to keep checking the remaining computers and hope we don't find too many of them."

Asho nods as he moves away the computer he was diagnosing. He was right; this disaster is definitely going to cost SciLab a pretty penny. They own so many servers and top-quality computers to keep the Network of Garden City in check and connected to the other cities, it's always extremely painful to the budget whenever a mass of computers are destroyed like what happened yesterday. But one thing they should be thankful for, at least they backed up anything important before the Network Disaster, thus saving them from an even bigger catastrophe.

As Asho got the computer out of the way he walked to a big server that's sitting on top of a table. He looked at it and gave a big sigh, cursing at the assignment he was given for today. Diagnosing computers and separating the functioning units from the destroyed ones. Asho hates this kind of work; he never liked diagnosing these things.

"Sighing will not get the work done, Asho." Kiraa told her partner without even taking her eyes off of her PET screen as she tapped away at the buttons. She knows all too well how Asho hates diagnosing computers, especially when they have to go through all of these.

"I know, I know…"

Asho's Navi, Booster, couldn't help but giggle a bit at his Operator's expense. _""Aw, don't worry, Asho. We're almost done anyway. Just this one server and a few more desktops, we'll be finished in no time!""_

"Hehe, yeah. I guess so." Without another word Asho plugs his PET into the server, transferring Booster to the internal network of the system to commence the diagnostic. As he did so he moved his eyes toward Kiraa, seeing her into her work with the other computers. There's something he's been meaning to talk to her about. "Um…Kiraa?"

"Yeah?"

"There's…Something that I've wanted to ask you about…"

"I thought we talked about this. I never attend those annual SciLab crew parties."

"N-No, it's not about that. It's about…Well…" Asho gulps before continuing, knowing this might not be a good thing to talk about to her. "Sometimes Booster and I…Well, see you on edge whenever we work on rescue missions or anything that involves Navis from the Leaf-Eater Generation…"

Kiraa stopped her working as she listens, knowing where this is heading to. Kaden, who's still by the door listening in, gets his attention grabbed by this turn of events to their conversation. He recalls when Kiraa explained this to him, that deep hatred she has to the Leaf-Eater Navis. It's a concept he still can't grasp; how can a group of Leaf-Eater Net Criminals change her opinions on the Leaf-Eater types so profoundly?

"It's none of your concern." Kiraa simply responded with, resuming on her work. "Some things you'll never understand…"

Asho wasn't surprised by her response. In fact he was going to press further but he held back, not wanting to agitate Kiraa. He knows how badly things can get when she's in a bad mood. And by the way she's glaring at her PET and tapping away at the buttons, the computer she's working on is giving her a hard time and doing just that. But instead of blowing up she sighs heavily and unplugs her PET, turning her back on the machine. "Well, this one is out of commission as well." She moves her eyes to the door, at which point Kaden quickly stepped back from the door as to avoid being seen. Whether or not he was seen he didn't know, but Kiraa saw the movement but brushed it off as an employee walking down the hall.

As he took a few steps away from the door Kaden sighed in relief, but then a hand on his shoulder made him jump out of his skin and instantly turned around. "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you." The man that was leading Kaden apologized. "I'm sorry that took longer than I thought. Come, I'll show you to the lab."

Kaden nodded and followed the guy down the hallway, his eyes following the door he was eavesdropping on as he walked past it. The walk took three more minutes as they turned a corner in the hallway and followed the hallway down to a big double-door with the letters "C-12" on a metallic plate above the entrance. "Please, this way." The man instructed as he entered through the doors.

Kaden followed the man through the doors and gasped in awe at the laboratory he sees. The room was enormous. It's a test lab all right. Look at all the different equipment. They all look so advanced, so complicated. He can see PET simulators, machines that show holograms of Net Navis to have a closer look at them. You name it, they got it.

"Oh wow!" Kaden exclaimed as he began to take a look around at the room excitedly. "This is like something out of one of those tech magazines! Hey! I've seen that machine on pictures on the internet! Oh wow! Are those holographic machines? I read those things can show life-size holographic images of Net Navis to have closer examinations on them! Oh! Battle simulators! I heard these babies can make any NetBattle thirty times more awesome than the dinky little ones the stores have! Oh wow! The Dimensional Area Bubble! I read that according to theory we can bring Net Navis to the real world in these areas! I can't believe I'm seeing one in person!"

Kaden felt like a child during Christmas morning as he continued zooming from machine to machine looking and drooling about them. In fact he was making such a racket most of the scientists in the room couldn't focus on their work. There's a reason why they only allow employees in here.

And then there's one machine in particular that caught Kaden's eyes. The moment he saw it he ran toward it with widened eyes. "Oh my gosh! Are these seats the Virtual Pulse Reactors I read so much about? I thought these were just theories and our technology wasn't advance enough to make these things! With these babies it's possible to bring humans into the Network and work together with the Net Navis! Oh my god, think of all the virtual reality games people can come up with with these seats mass produced!"

"Haha, I'm impressed, Kaden."

Upon hearing that familiar voice Kaden swung around and beamed happily. There he was, standing in front of him was none other than his own father. An adult in his late 30s, his hair dark brown, his pair of glasses well worn, a gentle and familiar smile on his face. "Dad!" Kaden cried as he ran toward him and pounced him, giving him a great big hug, extremely happy to see his father again after so many months.

"Whoa, hey!" His father laughed as he got the hug, barely managing to stay standing from his son's sudden jump. He hugged his son back, happy as well to see him. "Been a long time, Kaden. I'm glad to see you again too."

"You jerk!" Kaden cried with a happy grin to his father. "I missed you so much! You should visit home more often!"

Dr. Homari laughed, patting his son on the head as they released their embrace. "I'm sorry I haven't visited or called much, Kaden. I've just been so busy lately with work and all." He paused as he looked at Kaden's shorter hair and chuckled. "New haircut?"

Kaden blinks and gives a little chuckle. "Oh yeah, hehe, it's nothing really."

Dr. Homari chuckled at his son's response. "So," His father began as he leads Kaden to the back of the lab. "How's the new PET and Navi?"

"Oh, I'm loving it! You really saved my skin, dad. Dr. Inari told me that if I didn't have a PET of my own by the following week I would've automatically had to repeat the class."

"Wow, talk about a close call. I had a teacher like that once, except the threat came from as early as the first grade."

"Yeah, you told that one before, dad."

"I did? When?"

"About a year ago last Thanksgiving."

"Oh, right. Haha. I forgot."

As the two of them stopped walking Kaden wanted to get straight to the point. "Oh, hey dad." He began as he reached down to his PET and holds it out to his father. "About that email…"

"Oh, right!" Dr. Homari softly palms his face with a chuckle, nearly forgetting about the email he himself sent. "Thank you for reminding me, Kaden. I've been so swamped with work I almost forgot."

"You mentioned something about looking over my PET and Navi?"

"Yes, that's right." Dr. Homari nodded as he adjusted his glasses before holding out his hand. "It's nothing serious, just a normal scan and diagnostic to see if everything's going well. May I please see it?"

Kaden nods and hands over his PET to his father. Dr. Homari turned it over to look at the screen and blinked, noticing a rather strange absence of a Net Navi. "Kaden…Where's your Navi?"

"Oh." Kaden scratches the back of his head, not sure of what to say; wouldn't want to worry his dad or anything about him having an argument with Rex already. "He's in there, probably in sleep mode or something."

Pressing a few buttons on the PET Dr. Homari manages to dig out the Navi program from wherever he was hiding in. "Ah, there he is."

""_Yaaaaawn…""_ Rex rubs his eyes groggily; he must've fallen asleep for a moment there, hence sleep mode. He blinks a few times and sees Dr. Homari. _"Oh, Dr. Homari. It's good to see you again.""_

"It's good to see you again, too." Dr. Homari replies with a smile. He walks over to one of the machines and motions Kaden to follow him. "These tests shouldn't take too long. It's basically a thorough scan of your Navi's BIOS and data to make sure everything's in working order and nothing has been corrupted." Stopping in front of the machine Dr. Homari extends out the PET's plug-in cable and connects it into the port, jacking Rex into the machine. "Jack in."

The machine begins to hum to life, a few parts in the machine move and from the top a few parts move open like petals on a flower. Along these parts small lights begin to turn on and rotate in a slow matter. As they pick up speed the lights get brighter and create a circular holographic picture over the machine and expand, creating a 3D image in front of them. As the machine finishes warming up the 3D image takes shape into a Net Navi. The feet and legs are made first, followed by a torso and arms, soon enough wings and a head and the feathers on its head.

" Whoa…" Kaden was amazed by the technology. It looks as if Rex was brought to life right in front of him!

"This is the Net Navi 3D Simulator Projector." Dr. Homari explained to his son as he presses a few buttons on the machine's terminal. "It allows us to take a closer look at the Navi's structure and database. It's sort of like the monthly diagnostic tests you perform on your PET, but much more advance and more interactive."

To Rex it looks like he's standing in some sort of capsule with a live feed of the real world. He can see Dr. Homari and Kaden in front of him and the whole laboratory room around him. He blinks as he sees a blue ring surrounding him and starts moving up and down his form, scanning him for any problems.

Dr. Homari presses a few more buttons and some 3D pop-ups show up around Rex, each one showing different data and results from the scans from different part of Rex's body. It was impressive technology, and Kaden would love to toy with these machines.

One thing surprised Kaden about this machine as he saw his father walk closer to the machine while putting on a sort of purple gloves with a glossy-looking texture on the palm. With the glove on Dr. Homari reached out and actually grabbed one of the pop-ups. "Amazing…" Kaden whispered to himself in awe.

Dr. Homari read the things on the pop-up and read the results, tapping at it with his other gloved hand to scroll down the results. "Everything seems to be fine with your Navi." He reached a button to the terminal and the pop-up windows disappeared

Now came the interesting part. Dr. Homari took hold of a small device and walked up a couple of steps at the side of the machine and walked closer to the holographic projector of Rex. With his gloved hand he reached out and did something Kaden thought was impossible. He actually grabbed Rex's hand.

Both Kaden and Rex were surprised. They both thought Rex was just a holographic image, how could Dr. Homari physically touch him?

"How…How could you…?" Kaden tried to ask, but was still surprised to speak properly.

"This machine uses the technology being used for the Dimensional Area project." Dr. Homari happily explained to his son while examining Rex's hand and arm, much to Rex's shock. "The technology isn't fully perfected, so for now we can only call up holographic third dimensional images of Net Navis. However, we're aiming to bring the interactivity to real time in the form that Navis and humans can interact with each other as if they were real physical beings." He stops the examination and looks at Kaden while holding up a gloved hand. "But for the mean time, these dimensional gloves allow us to physically touch any Navi and data projected out with the Dimensional Area technology, but that's as far as we can get right now."

Kaden was amazed. He knew they were researching and developing with the technology of the Dimensional Area, but he had no idea they had made it this far with the gloves and all. Sure it's not full time interaction, but it's something, right? The future is looking incredible with these advances.

"Now," Dr. Homari began as he turned his head back to Rex. "This might sting a little." With the small device Dr. Homari pushed a button on it and from it extends a small sarp-looking antenna. Rex gulped from the look of the thing, and when Dr. Homari placed the tip of it on Rex's hand the Navi grunted as a shock of bolts surged from his hand up his arm and through his whole body, feeling his data structure being jolted, as if he just got struck by a lightning-based attack.

"Easy there." Dr. Homari spoke to Rex.

"What is that thing?" Kaden inquired.

"It's a data reading device that allows developers and technicians to have a much better accurate reading of data and BIOS signature. It's still in alpha stages but it's scheduled to be done shortly after the Dimensional Area project is finished. They're planned to be much more reliable than the handheld palm devices that are currently in use by 60."

"It looks like it sort of hurts the Navi."

"Unfortunately that's the only side-effect the developers just can't seem to fix." Dr. Homari presses the button on the device and retracts the antenna, much to Rex's relief as the pain subsides.

He looks into the device's screen to read the results and smiles. "Looks like everything's working perfectly, no corrupted data or BIOS, you have a healthy Navi." Despite the good news Dr. Homari's smile fades and turns his head to Rex. He reaches out his hand and lightly grabs Rex's chin, lowering his head down a bit to look at the black scar that snakes down over his right eyes. With a sigh Dr. Homari comments in a low voice, "I really hate seeing that program there…"

Rex blinked. Program? Does he mean the scar? So the scar is a program that's installed in him. That would explain the scar being of a different color. After all it's known that some programs tend to modify the physical appearance of Navis, like underwater breathing programs where it would add an oxygen mask and tank to the Navi's outer look and fire resistance programs where their feet would change color and exterior to allow them to walk over fire. But what kind of program would just add a black scar? What could this program do to him? Whatever it is, it must be something pretty big to have Dr. Homari wish it wasn't added to him.

"All right," Dr. Homari released his grip on Rex and descended down the machine while removing his gloves. "Jack out to the PET, there's one more test I want to perform."

"Ah, Dr. Homari, there you are."

Kaden and his father both turned to the source of the voice to find a fellow scientist walking up to them. Kaden was sort of taken back at how this man looked; it felt like he was looking at some kind of deranged scientist from those old monster movies where a mad scientist is bent on freaky experiments, like Frankenstein. It's the chin and the nose; they look so…So pointy and long…

"Oh, D-Dr. Isaac." Dr. Homari stammered a bit. To be in the presence of such a brilliant scientist in a dump like this to his standards. "I-I'm sorry, it must've slipped my mind that you were coming."

"Don't worry about it, my friend." Dr. Isaac turned his head to Kaden, looking at him with a friendly smile. Kaden couldn't help but feel a bit creeped out by it. That with the chin and the nose…You could land a plane on that chin and the nose could be the control tower…

"Kaden," Dr. Homari began as he walked to his son and introduced him to the scientist. "This is Dr. Isaac; he'll be helping SciLab in repairing the network." He looked at Dr. Isaac and motioned to his son. "Dr. Isaac, this is Kaden Homari, my son."

Dr. Isaac looked at Kaden and gave a nodding smile. "A pleasure to meet you, Homari. It always does my heart good to see young people such as yourself roaming the laboratories of SciLab looking and learning, so eager for the future."

"Um, yeah, likewise." Kaden turned his head a bit away, a bit shy of being in front of a stranger such as this Dr. Isaac. He must be pretty good to be sent here to help with the repairs of the Network. Must be a pretty brilliant scientist, but geez couldn't he do something about that nose and chin? Like maybe surgery or something. It's kind of…Well, creepy.

Dr. Isaac turned to his left and stopped midway, his eyes setting upon the 3D image of a Sharptooth Generation Net Navi. The Navi's form intrigued him; the look, the dangerous yet gentle appearance, it's like a perfect mixture of the Leaf-Eater and Sharptooth Generation. It was sort of an awkward moment for Rex as a renowned scientist such as Dr. Isaac is staring at him like this, fascinated by him. Rex gulps as he turns his eyes away, he expects any moment now that Dr. Isaac will take the dimensional gloves and begin poking and prodding him and his programming.

Dr. Homari, seeing Dr. Isaac examining Rex with his eyes, clears his throat. "Ahem…Dr. Isaac, this is the Net Navi you've been briefed on. It's the newest series for the Sharptooth Generation of Navis."

"Impressive." Dr. Isaac muttered.

Kaden blinked and turned his head to his father. "Newest species?"

"Yes," Dr. Homari nodded as he turned off the machine, transferring Rex back into the PET before moving on. "I'm sorry I never told you this on the emails, I guess it slipped my mind."

"Hehe, don't worry about it, dad. I kind of figured it out when I didn't recognize him from any of the Navi series."

"Hehe." Dr. Homari chuckled. He figured his own son would keep up with the latest Navi series and would recognize a new one when he'd see it. As he walked to another machine he turned his head to before looking back at Kaden. "Kaden, could I have a moment alone with Dr. Isaac? Some matters to discuss." He then pointed a door not far from them. "You can wait for me in that room over there."

Kaden shrugged and nodded. Again with his business, he should've expected he was going to be pushed aside for business. Even though it might be for a few minutes, it still kind of stinks to be robbed of such sweet little minutes of father and son time. But still, he can't blame his father for doing his job. As Kaden walked toward the door his father told him of he couldn't help but look over his shoulder to his father, like a child who's being separated from his parent. But he digresses as he opens the door and steps inside the room, spotting inside a few tables and chairs. One of which he picks and sits on a chair and taps his fingers on the table, waiting for his father.

"So, that Navi…" Dr. Isaac begins as he follows Dr. Homari.

"Yes, this is him." Dr. Homari reports as he turns to Dr. Homari and hands him the PET. " is the prototype chosen for the test of the new ST Program that was extracted from the information that was collected a decade ago from the project."

"Yes, so I see." Dr. Isaac pressed buttons on the PET, going through the status and data of the Navi structure and version as curiosity and admiration shone in his eyes. He couldn't believe the structure of the Navi as he began the debug mode and looked over the construction. "I must say, this is quite impressive…The way he's programmed…How did you ever managed to stabilize the Sharptooth data core?"

"Well, it was a huge cooperation with a number of SciLab's branches." Dr. Homari reports as he walks over to his table and show some documents about the project. "We had a dedicated group of scientists to study the Sharptooth data core and to figure out what it is about it that drives Sharptooth-based Navis to go berserk. It took them years to figure out the problem, but they figured out that the Navi's bio frame capacity was too small to be able to handle such a potent data core. From the ninety-eight percent of the data core they used in the project a decade ago, they were able to reduce it to ten perfect, roughly nine perfect more than the Sharptooth Generation Navis we equipped the Net Police with."

"Fascinating." Dr. Isaac was in awe. It was proven that it was impossible to apply more than one percent of the Sharptooth data core to a Navi without having it go berserk, but with their advances and dedication their team managed to increase the potency to ten percent without losing the Navi. "How did your team managed to attain such a result without any technicalities?"

"Well, please follow me." Dr. Homari made his way to a computer terminal as Dr. Isaac followed him. Turning on the monitor and clicking through the documents and pages Dr. Homari opens a program that shows blueprints of a new Navi design, complete with details and scans of the project. "According to what we know both Leaf-Eater Frames and Sharptooth Frames each have different properties and elements. Leaf-Eater Frames are easier to customize and maintain, but it's been proven their structure doesn't allow the Sharptooth data core to grow at all, just suppressing it to absolute zero. This results at a disadvantage when a Leaf-Eater Navi has to face viruses, since viruses are pure Sharptooth data and as such are more powerful than Leaf-Eater Navis, so they almost always require an Operator with Battle Chips to aid them in battle to survive unless they've been heavily customized with Navi Custom Programs."

Dr. Isaac nods in understanding as he rubbed his chin in thought. "Yes, that theory has been proven for years now."

"Now," Dr. Homari opens a different blueprint and continues explaining. "Sharptooth Frames are a bit different. They're often very difficult to customize and the maintenance process are very complex. However, the Sharptooth data core is attracted to this frame, leading to the data core to grow and eventually corrupt the entire Navi's Frame and state of mind. This is quite a problem when it comes to figuring out a way to strengthen the people's defenses. Like a powerful Antivirus destroying a virus, a Sharptooth data core can easily dismantle and absorb a Leaf-Eater data core. When it comes to the Sharptooth viruses on the Network, they can absorb any Navis they delete, thus resulting in an even more powerful virus over time."

Dr. Isaac looks at Dr. Homari and clears his throat. "So in theory, the Mega Virus that attacked the Garden Network must've been plenty of years old and have absorbed data worth hundreds of deleted Navis over the years to be able to destroy the Network with little effort."

Dr. Homari nods with grim. "According to studies of traces of deleted data we've found on the Network. It's deduced that the Mega Virus was around a decade old…We believe the Mega Virus was part of the Project."

Dr. Isaac remained silent. He knew which project Dr. Homari was referring to. As for Rex, who's still in his PET listening to all of this, couldn't help but reflect on everything that he heard and slowly clutched his chest. He's a prototype? A guinea pig to an experiment of SciLab's? But…But how different does this make him to every other Navi? And if it's true and he has a data core of the Sharptooth Generation, won't that mean he could eventually go berserk and attack his friends?

Dr. Isaac digresses and inquires what's been nagging at his curiosity. "As for ? What have your fellow scientists have done to reach this breakthrough?"

Dr. Homari taps away at the computer and opens up a new blueprint. "Well, according to their notes and research, they have done the following. As I mentioned earlier Sharptooth Frames attract the growth of the Sharptooth data core and in turn it corrupts the entire Frame, sending the Navi into a rage. And using Leaf-Eater Frames on the Sharptooth data core is out of the question as the data core is suppressed by it and keeps the processing power of the orb to an absolute minimum, making it no stronger than a Leaf-Eater Navi. In the end our scientist discovered and ingenious way."

"Which is…?"

"What they did was to compress a Sharptooth Frame and Leaf-Eater Frame together into one. Naturally, being only Frames they cannot harm one another, but their actions combine so to speak. Using an ingenious method they created a new Frame which consists of layers and layers of Sharptooth and Leaf-Eater Frames. With this method, when installed, the Sharptooth data core is attracted by the layers of data taken from the Leaf-Eater Frames, yet the data core is held back by the layers of data from the Sharptooth Frames in-between. As the Leaf-Eater data attracts it, the Sharptooth data expels it."

"The results are the following." With the press of a button a simulator opens on the monitor, showing a 3D image of what Rex's Frame would look like. Upon zooming in numerous layers can be seen one after another in the Navi's body, green to represent Leaf-Eater Frame data, red representing Sharptooth Frame data. The simulator shows a red orb in the middle of the body, the Sharptooth data core. It expands as the red layers attracting it, but as it expands it starts shrinking as it expands past the green layers. The results show the data orb expands and shrinks, like an oval that expands a few layers before finally stopping its growth.

"It stopped." Dr. Isaac points out, liking what he's seeing.

"Yes." Dr. Homari nods and continues. "With the Leaf-Eater Frame data the Sharptooth data core is attracted by it, but the Sharptooth Frame data in between them acts like a reinforced wall, pushing back the data core from expanding too much and completely corrupt the Frame. The results are a Net Navi Frame capable of equipping the Sharptooth data core without being corrupted or worrying about the data core."

"How ingenious…" Dr. Isaac was in awe. It took them ten years to discover a way to make it possible to use the Sharptooth data core to more heights than the measly one percent. They found a way to make a perfect blend of Sharptooth and Leaf-Eater data, like an omnivore in the real world. It was the perfect solution, and the way they executed it was nothing short of brilliant. "This is certainly a breakthrough on the road to perfect the Sharptooth Generation."

"There's a bit of a problem though." Dr. Homari comments with a grim tone in his voice. "This type of Frame allows us to use the Sharptooth data core up to ten percent of its power, no more than that. Plus, this Frame's memory capacity is too much; it barely fit in the Plug-In PET models." Dr. Homari presses a few keys on the computer to open another blueprints, this one of a PET model. "The Project Advance was founded to resolve this problem. Our goal is to create a brand new PET with at least four times the amount of memory the Plug-In PET is capable of. This way we can compress the Frame even more to allow improving its resistance to the data core. Our aim is at least to reach thirty percent. Not only that, but we also aim to improve the user-friendly interface on the public's everyday PET use and to allow wireless jack-ins for more freedom in case of an emergency."

Dr. Isaac rubbed his chin, intrigued as his eyes study the PET blueprints displaying on the monitors. There's so much SciLab is working on daily to improve technology, how many researches they're doing for a better future. "That's quite a project your division has on their hands."

Dr. Homari nods with a smile, proud of the people who have helped him with the research and development. "Yes, we do. But luckily we have a very dedicated team researching and developing it. We were expected to release an alpha built of the project to the higher ups, but with the Network Disaster, we'll probably be delayed by a few months at most."

Dr. Isaac shakes his head, a shame to see such a potential project that would benefit their future and all of humanity being delayed because of a virus. Fortunately the reason he's here is to help with the recovery of the Network with his new generation of Net Navis he's been working on for years. It was finally time to put his new discoveries to the test today.

Looking at his wrist watch Dr. Isaac goes to turn around. "Please excuse me, Dr. Homari. But it is getting late and I must go back to work."

"Of course." Dr. Homari nods in understanding. Dr. Isaac must be a very busy man since he has arrived, it's a wonder he found time to look at the prototype.

Dr. Isaac turns and begins to leave, but not before saying one last thing. "I look forward to seeing more results of the prototype, Dr. Homari. I wish you luck with Project Advance as well." And with that, Dr. Isaac takes his leave.

Dr. Homari just sighed as he turned his head back to the computer and set his eyes on the blueprints of the new PET in development. He just wished he was sure this project was actually going to succeed. They've been hitting so many bumps with this. He's not sure if the technology they have available is even enough. They've found so many bugs, so many technicalities; it'll be a wonder if they even finish the alpha build in months from now. There's a lot of stress going on, with the Network Disaster and the problems with this…

""_Dr. Homari…""_

Dr. Homari opens his eyes and looks down to the PET. Of course, he almost forgot about him.

""_I don't know what stress all of this brings you, but try to keep your chin up.""_ Rex tries to give some encouraging words to his creator. _""You're important to SciLab with this project, you can't give in. Just do your best and everything will be fine.""_

Dr. Homari smiles and picks up the PET. "Thanks, Rex. I will." He stands up and then turns to the door. "Come on, Kaden is waiting for us in the conference room."

* * *

A dark room's door opens. A mysterious man walks inside and closes the door quickly behind him. Everything's going according to plan. The man grins and brings to his mouth a communicator. "Everything's set." He speaks through it.

"_Finally. So should I make my big entrance, old man?"_

"Of course. Make it snappy. You have one hour."

"_That's all I need. Ready, Zill?"_

""_Finally, I get to shred some Leaf-Eaters! I'm hungry for some good meat.""_

"One hour. That's all you get." The mysterious man grins and lowers the communicator. Any moment now…

In the Network outside of SciLab's mainframe a brown Sickle Claw Navi, Zill, watches a heavily guarded firewall port. The port in the network looks like a cave entrance in a large mountain. Four Spike Tail Navis guard the entrance as small Three Horn and Flyer Navis make their way in and out, most probably workers who are helping in restoring the Network. Zill couldn't help but lick his lips and grin. "Paydirt…Feeding time…"

His Operator, Akira, smiles as he stands on the second floor in one of the warehouses housing the nuclear generators, the ones Kaden helped with yesterday. His PET is jacked into a hacked port in one of the offices on the second floor. His PET has a built-in frequency jammer, preventing anyone from tracing his location through the port. It's a perfect way to sneak in.

Scanning the area through his PET Akira smiled devilishly as he digs into his pocket and takes out a Battle Chip; its graphic design in the middle has a photo of an Utahraptor dinosaur. He jams it into his PET and in the Network in front of Zill materializes three viruses. These viruses are about six feet tall and 21 feet long. They're massive! Their feathery hide was sky blue and their eyes a menacing glare and color blue. They make a low purring sound as they bare their teeth and grow menacing. The feathers on their arms are used as projectiles with the Water element, or ice in this case. At the tip of their tail they have longer-looking feathers, which are more powerful than the feathers on their arms but are much slower to shoot. These viruses are known as IceRaptors, and they're fast and deadly despite their size!

Zill chuckles and holds his hand out to the IceRaptors to command them. "Go." He commands as he throws his arm aside to the direction of the firewall port.

With a loud screech the IceRaptors turn and run off at the command of their master. Causing the guarding Spike Tails to jump in terror and look around, still keeping their spot guarding the port. "What the heck was that?" One of them spoke out to his comrades. Soon enough they see three IceRaptors rushing toward them, screeching loudly and hungry for blood!

"IceRaptors!" One of the Spike Tail cries out to his comrades as he puts his arms up in a guard.

"W-Where did they come from?" One of them cries out with a hint of nervousness and fright in his voice. He holds up his arm and his hand changes to his buster cannon, taking aim and opening fire on the incoming viruses.

"Don't let them through!" The bigger Spike Tail calls out to the other three. His left hand grows massive as he's assisted with a MegaFist battle chip, ready to take the fight up close and personal. He charges forward with a cry and throws his left fist, missing as the IceRaptor he was aiming for jumps over him to avoid the punch. The IceRaptor screeches loudly as it runs aside to avoid the shots and hisses at its attackers. It suddenly moves its little arms from left to right in a motion and icy blue feather projectiles fly to its targets.

"Look out!" One of the Spike Tails shouts to his comrades, warning them about the shots. However, he didn't take his own warning and one projectile slams into his body. He suddenly felt an icy chill grabbing him from inside and covering his entire body, and as he cried out in pain from the strike his whole body suddenly froze in place in a block of ice, frozen solid.

"No!" One of the remaining three Spike Tails cries out to his fallen comrade. He grits his teeth and holds out his arm as his hand changes to a HighCannon, a second level Cannon with an attack rate of 80 hit points per hit. He takes aim and shoots to support his other comrade who's returning fire with his buster. Together they manage to give the IceRaptors a good footwork, managing to strike and delete one in the process. One of the IceRaptors jumps to avoid the shots and, upon landing right back on the ground, it horrifies the two Spike Tails as it landed dangerously close to them and shoots more projectiles. Before they could react, the two Spike Tails are frozen solid.

The remaining Spike Tail backs away as the two remaining IceRaptors slowly stalk toward their remaining prey. The Spike Tail glares angrily at them for what they have done to his comrades, but before he could have his revenge he felt a paw on his shoulder. He thought it was back up and couldn't felt any more relieved. However, luck just wasn't on his side. For when he turned around he was met with a rather evil grin from a Sickle Claw Navi.

"Boo."

Before the Spike Tail could react deadly rows of teeth clamped shut tight around the side of his neck, impaling deep into his data structure and frame. Pixels of data flew out from the sudden wound, liquefied data (Can also be identified as digital blood) began to pour out from the wound, and Zill could taste it. After all, to Sharptooth Navis and viruses, Leaf Eater data has a much more delicious taste compared to Sharptooth data. With a powerful yank Zill rips his teeth from the Spike Tail's neck, taking away a chunk of his data frame in his mouth, and he savored it. The Spike Tail fell to the ground soundlessly, and like that he jacked out of the Network back to his PET to avoid deletion.

"Mmm…" Zill licked his lips from the data he just absorbed, thrilled to taste Leaf Eater data again. He could feel his hit points increasing a little bit, but it was an enjoyable little bit. He turned to his IceRaptor viruses as they purr quietly while strafing around their three Spike Tail popsicles. They couldn't wait to sink their teeth into them. But unfortunately for them, that would have to wait.

"Go, my viruses." Zill holds out his hand to them, getting their attention. "Go into SciLab, have fun! Devour and delete anyone who gets into your way! Devour data and multiply, infect their pitiful computers."

The IceRaptors screeched before turning tail and running into the port, ready to wreak havoc in SciLab's network. "Oh, this is going to be so much fun." Zill and his operator, Akira, declared at the same time with grins on their faces.

* * *

"This is the last test, and then you and your Navi can go home." Dr. Homari types in a few commands into the computer he's working on. He lifts up his head forward to see another hologram machine humming to life, getting it ready for another performance test.

Kaden sighs and complains. "But dad, can't I hang out around here with you for a little while more? I barely see you enough as it is."

Dr. Homari smiles and looks to his right to his son. "I wish you could. But SciLab regulations prohibit me to have non-employees into the laboratories and testing grounds of SciLab. You've been given special permission to be here while the tests are underway. I'm afraid once I'm done with this one you'd have to leave."

Kaden sighs, disappointed by the news. He was so happy to see his father again, but today was just too short. He just wishes his father would take more vacation time to be with him and his mother. Of all the jobs his father could've taken…

Dr. Homari notices the look of disappointment in his son's face and smiles gently, patting his shoulder to calm him down. "Hey, how about when this is over you and I sneak out and grab a little something to eat? You in the mood for some burgers?"

Kaden beams and looks up at his father. "Really? The old burger joint down at the Shopping District? The Meat Eater Paradise down 10-B street?"

Dr. Homari laughs. The Meat Eater Paradise sounds rather tacky for a burger diner, but they do serve the best burgers in Garden City, albeit a little pricy. But the atmosphere is great, and gotta love the Jurassic setting they have; a jungle theme diner with dinosaur bones decorating the place. "That's the one. My treat."

Kaden grins and pumps his arms. "Yes!"

""_But Kaden…""_ Uh-oh, nag alert from Rex again. _""What about dinner? You know Mom always has food prepared on the table at 6PM.""_

"Really?" Dr. Homari blinks before letting out a short laugh. "I forgot how your mother is always punctual with dinner. She really enjoys being on time with her meals for the family."

Kaden palms his face and curses under his breath. Leave it to Rex to ruin the moment. He couldn't help but feel a little anger toward his Navi. It's already around 5:30PM which means his mother must already be done cooking dinner. Now letting his dad know about it he'll no doubt cancel the plans.

"Well, let's get the test underway." Dr. Homari states as the machine finishes warming up. He takes Kaden's PET and extends the cable and plugs it into the terminal, jacking Rex out of the PET and into the machine. In front of them a holographic 3D image of Rex is materialized along with a 3D holographic room. "This is a machine to simulate training programs for Navis. It's used to diagnose any problems with the Navi's fighting capabilities and any tune-ups he may need."

Rex looks around. To him it looks like he's in a black room with green lines along the walls and floor. He is startled by something showing up in front of him and slashes it in two with his claws. It was nothing but a white cube. But boy did it startle him to attack.

On the monitor to his left Dr. Homari looks at the data being poured him from Rex's battle simulation while Kaden watched his Navi jumping around dodging bullets and slashing and shooting battle cubes. He couldn't help but glare at him, feeling a bit of anger from always nagging and ruining his fun, trying to straighten him into a perfect man and, above all else, possibly ruin a time out with his father. Oh it had to stop. One way or another.

"Um, dad…?"

"Yes?"

"Can I talk to you about something?"

"Sure. What is it?"

"It's about Rex."

"You like him, huh? I knew you'd love him after telling me for years how much you wanted a Net Navi of your own."

"Well…Yes and no…"

As Rex trained he couldn't help but let his hearing wander, listening in on Kaden and Dr. Homari's conversation.

"Yes and no? Is something wrong?"

"Well…Could you reprogram his personality?"

Rex's eyes widen a little bit upon hearing that. He froze in his kneeling stance with his buster trained at one of the cubes.

"Personality? I could. But why?"

"Well…Because he…How can I put this…He's…Well, annoying."

"Are…You sure? Net Navis are as real as you and I. To change his personality it would be like turning him into someone else."

Rex slowly lowered his buster arm as he slowly bowed his head, his eyes almost closing in sadness upon hearing what he just heard. Kaden…Hates him? He was aware he got on his nerves from time to time but…He didn't know it was this…Deep…

Kaden thought about it a little, but before any more can be said a loud emergency alarm broke the silence and interrupting work on the lab.

_Emergency! Emergency! Viruses have hacked into the main network of SciLab! Immediate action is required! Emergency! Emergency!_

"Viruses? Here?" Dr. Homari couldn't believe it. Scientists have formed a level 10 firewall around the SciLab network to avoid any viruses from getting in. How did they get past the firewall's securities? This is bad. The Network is already in bad shape, and with viruses attacking the SciLab's mainframe, it could spell disaster and practically demolish the Garden City Network completely!

Kaden and Rex were just as surprised and a little scared from the turn of events. They know it's another time to go virus busting! "Dad!" Kaden turned to his father to ask back for the PET, but things turned out differently.

"Kaden, I want you to stay here." His father instructed. "It's safe in here; none of these machines in this test room are directly connected to the network, do not go out to the laboratory!" With that he ran out the door and turned to his son. "Understand? Don't leave this room."

"But-" It was too late. Dr. Homari storms out of the room and into the laboratory to help the others. Kaden ran to the door and looked out the window that was next to it. He could see scientists and personnel scrambling to address the situation, turning off and unplugging computers and machines around them to prevent them from being infected. He had to do something; he hates standing around doing nothing.

Outside the laboratory and in the second floor Asho and Kiraa are scrambling to deal with the situation. "How did viruses even get in here?" Asho demanded to know into his PET as he ran alongside Kiraa down the hall. In the network just outside the firewall port their Navis, Booster and Grayscale, were examinating the scene with a few Navis from the Net Police. The three frozen Spike Tails were still there, and members of the Net Police were trying their best to defrost them.

"I don't know, Asho." Booster reported as he looked around, his eyes wandering back to the frozen Navis. "But I'm pretty sure this is a hacker's doing. I don't think viruses are smart enough to pull something like this."

Grayscale pads around one of the frozen Spike Tail, looking up at it and the Navi's expression. She couldn't help but smirk. Whoever did this truly loves his style; to capture the emotion so perfectly like a picture. "Hm?" She looked down to see a feather on the ground glowing blue. She could feel an icy feeling near the feather, and she knew this was used to freeze the Navis. "IceRaptors…" She hissed before turning her head to Booster. "Booster, found an ice feather here."

Booster turned to Grayscale, but something caught his eye and the feeling of one of his toes. Looking down he spots another feather near his foot, glowing an icy blue color as well. "Hacker, definitely." He confirms to Asho. "And he got inside using IceRaptor viruses."

"IceRaptors…" Asho echoes. Where has he heard that name before…?

"They're computer viruses with ice element." Kiraa informs to her partner as they continue down the hall. "Their feathers are thrown as projectiles for attack. Anything that touches those feathers gets frozen to the touch. I thought you went through the virus reports last week."

"Uhhh…" Asho stammers. He slacked off again. "Must have slipped my mind."

"At any rate," Kiraa continues. "A virus like that in the mainframe is bad. Very bad."

Asho nods and turns back to his PET as both he and Kiraa enter the room they were headed. "Booster. You and Grayscale return to the SciLab mainframe and delete the viruses. While you're at it, issue the alarm update."

Booster nods. "Roger." He wags his finger in front of his face and opens a terminal with a phone-like device attached to it. Time to issue the warning to the building.

_Warning! Warning! IceRaptor viruses confirmed to roam the mainframe. Immediate action required. Please disconnect any computers attached to the mainframe and keep your distance from network ports and plugs. Effective immediately._

Akira grins. With the viruses in place he has access to every surveillance camera in the building. He watched as people went in and out of doorways, trying to secure every room in the building. This isn't going healthy for their plans. Let's fix that. "Zill…"

"Already got it covered." Zill smirks as he transfers himself in the security network of the mainframe. Immediately he surprises countless Duckbill and Longneck Navis who were working on the security area. Zill calmly lifts both his arms and from his finger tips he shoots out streams of lightning, zapping every Navi in the network and forcing them to jack out. Looks like somebody forgot to mention that Zill is an Elec type Navi. He steps over to the control panel and aims his fingers at it and zaps the panel to oblivion, causing errors to the program.

All around the building every single door shuts, locking everyone inside and keeping those left behind out. Asho and Kiraa were surprised as the door suddenly shuts behind them and the sound of the lock activating only made things worse. Asho rushes back to the door and fights with the knob, but the door refused to open. "Great…" Asho curses as he backs away. "We're locked in."

Kiraa just frowned. How troublesome. Turning her eyes to her holster she takes out her PET and presses a button to open the communication port to her Navi. "Grayscale. The doors were locked. You know where to go."

Grayscale responds with a simple nod and rushes back into the mainframe with Booster close behind. Whoever invaded their mainframe sure has a lot of guts. Guts and a death wish. As they enter back into the SciLab mainframe we can truly see how it looks like. To the Navis it looks like a vast plain with some mountains here and there. The mountains represent servers in the building connected to the network. The big trees in the area represent the big computers connected to the mainframe and the forests strewn across the plains are the networks of numerous computers that are connected to the mainframe. At the bottom of each mountain and tree you'll find small little cave openings, by which you can enter through them and transfer yourself to the mainframe of their respective server and computer. If you didn't own a SciLab KeyCard to see the invisible markings that tells you what directs you to where, you'd spend the entire day going in and out just trying to find your respective computer.

"Whoa!" Booster dives to the ground just in time to avoid a projectile from striking him. Grayscale skids to a halt and turns around to spot a group of about three IceRaptor viruses screeching at them. It was rather intimidating seeing such big viruses here.

The IceRaptors screech once again and launch their projectiles at them, which Booster and Grayscale manage to dodge as well. But they're sitting ducks out here, they need cover. The Alimon Navi looks around and spots a few trees in the area. She could tell by the sealed cave opening that the computers were disconnected, so any damage to the peripheral would be spared. The port on the other hand…

"Booster, quick." Grayscale darted to the tree and hid behind it, managing to barely avoid being struck by a projectile. Booster followed suit and dived behind one of them, he too avoiding at least two shots.

"Agh!" Booster cried as he covered his face as a projectile struck near him and exploded in small data, feeling the cold released from it. He gets on one knee and turned his right arm into his buster, ready to go for the offensive. "I counted three, which means one for you and me and an extra one for us to take out together."

"I wouldn't hold my breath if more show up." Grayscale replies as she peaks out from behind the tree. "There's too much data in this mainframe. They're probably gobbling all of it up and multiplying."

Booster peaks out from behind the tree and returns fire with his buster before covering behind the tree again from more ice projectiles. "What we need are battle chips and some back up. Where are Chomper and Yu?"

"We're trying to contact them, but there's too much static in this room from the equipment to properly contact them wirelessly." Asho looks around the room. Of all rooms to be sent in, it had to be the communication room with all the radar and wireless equipment. Asho spots the terminal of the communication room and saw the jack-in ports. "Hang on, guys. Help is on the way."

Across the network, in fact all of SciLab's mainframe is being invaded by IceRaptor viruses. They gnaw and claw at the power pillars and attacking trees and mountains, the ports that send them to computers and mainframes. Grayscale was right, they are multiplying.

Navis from Net Police and Net Savior are hard at work at deleting these viruses. But no matter how many they delete, more just keep coming. It's like a plague, and the end is nowhere near in sight. One Navi in specific is running across the plain at great speed. Every virus he comes across meets its end with a quick jump and slash from this Navi, his running speed unchanged; a skilled and agile Navi from the Alimon series and an officer of Net Savior.

This Alimon Navi is green with black stripes all over his back, tail and legs while his underbelly and face is of an orange color. On top of his head and down the back of his neck and down his back he dons a gray and yellow armor with three blue spikes with red tips on his head and five of them on the back of his neck. On his tail he has two yellow rings with blue spikes much like the ones on his head. The tip of his tail also has a few of said spikes, and a good strike of his tail with them would definitely lead to agonizing pain. Finally, on his chest he has a crest with an insignia with the symbol SL and a zigzagged line down the middle of it.

His red eyes scan the area as he continues running. He suddenly growls furiously as he spots another virus and in a fast pace darts to it and jumps, doing a front flip in the air and striking the virus' face with his tail, deleting it at once without skipping a beat as he lands gracefully and continues running. "The viruses are still spawning…" The Navi speaks to his operator.

""_There must be a mother virus. If we find and delete it, we can slow down the multiplication rate.""_

"Any theories on where this mother virus is, though?"

""_Scientists are making a scan for it. We can only delete viruses and slow them down until then.""_

The Alimon Navi nods and continues on with his mission. "Understood."

While back at the training simulator room Kaden was struggling with the door, trying to get it to open. He doesn't recall his father locking the door behind him. Whatever is happening to SciLab's network, the locking mechanism of the doors has been tampered with, locking everybody in. Kaden cursed under his breath and stepped back, the door is definitely out of the question. But he wasn't going to stay in this room any longer! He looked around and noticed an air duct up on the roof over a table; he could easily stand on the table and pull himself up into it to get out of here.

He walked over to the simulator machine and grabbed his PET. "Rex…"

Rex lifted his head up to listen to his Operator. Although his heart still ached from when he heard Kaden's request to reprogram him, he still couldn't and wouldn't abandon him. "Y-Yeah, Kaden?"

"We're getting out of here." Kaden stated as he plugged out the cable from the port, jacking Rex out into the PET.

""_But, your father said-""_

"I know what he said, don't start!"

Rex flinched and clamped his mouth shut with his paws. He's just digging himself deeper.

Kaden merely holstered his PET into his holster belt and climbed on top of the table. He raised his hands and grabbed the cover of the air duct, easily opening it and removing the cover. Slowly but surely he pulled himself up into the duct, suddenly grossed out by dead bugs and dirt along the duct. He shook the fear aside; he didn't have time to be grossed out. On his hands and knees he crawled through the duct, following the narrow path and hoping it would take him somewhere good. Eventually he reached another duct cover, his exit. Removing the cover he looks down through the opening, seeing the room empty with a lot of computer terminals and security monitors showing black and white pictures of random areas of the building. This must be the security room. Perfect.

Carefully he dropped himself into the room, the momentum of the drop causing him to drop down on one knee to avoid any injuries. He gets up and walks over to the computer terminals and tries his luck at randomly pressing buttons, but he gets no responses. Little does his know that this terminal's control panels in the network were fried by a certain Navi's electric attacks. "Crud, the controls aren't working."

Rex frowned and took a heavy sigh. He can't stay at mad at him, he has to help him. Now more than ever if he's…Going to be reprogrammed. _""Kaden…Jack me in, I'll try to overwrite the commands through the mainframe and unlock the locking mechanisms.""_

Kaden took his time to decide. He was still sore at his Navi, but now's not the time to let his anger keep him from doing what has to be done. "Okay, get ready." Taking out his PET he extends the cable and plugs it into the terminal. "Jack in! Rex! Power up!"

Rex transfers into the mainframe in a blue transport light, materializing from his feet up to his head. Taking a few steps forward he stops and notices the fried terminals in front of him. He looks around to see other damages as well, such as a few frozen areas on the ground and more burn marks. What the heck happened here?

A groan caught Rex's attention. He turns to his right and gasps to see a wounded Longneck Navi on the ground clutching a de-rezzing wound on his thigh. "Hey, are you okay?" Rex inquires as he rushes over to the Navi, kneeling down to check on the wound. "What happened here?"

"Nnngh…A Sharptooth attacked us…Lightning from his…Paws…" The Longneck Navi slowly lifts his head and gasps. He manages to get up to his knees and push Rex away. "Look out!"

As Rex was pushed back he watches as two projectiles zoom past where he was and strike the downed Longneck Navi, freezing him solid in a block of ice in an instant. Horrified, Rex turns his head and spots two viruses screeching at him, their feathers glowing and their claws sizzling with pure cybernetic energy. "W-What are those things?"

Kaden taps a few buttons into his PET, scrolling through some documents until he finds what he's looking for: a Virus Encyclopedia, a program all PETs come with. He scans the viruses in the mainframe and the encyclopedia comes up with information he needed. "IceRaptor viruses." Kaden reads the entry. "They can freeze you solid with its feathers and can tear you apart with their claws."

Rex slowly stands up and jumps to the side, avoiding a sudden shot of their feathers. He winces and rubs his side as he felt the numbness cold as the projectiles flew past him. They're fast shooters, that's for sure. "They're probably the ones who caused all this trouble."

"Then they'll pay…" Kaden's eyes were in a deep glare. No one ruins his day with his father and gets away with it. He takes out a certain giga-class Battle Chip and slots it into the PET, transferring the battle data to Rex.

In turn, Rex's eyes glow red, but instead of issuing the attack Rex sort of hesitates as he looks at his glowing paws. "Um, Kaden? I don't think it's such a good idea to waste the good ones this early."

"Just do it!"

Rex winces, but what else can he do? He's his Net Navi, and he has to do what Kaden says. After all…He's just a program. With a sigh Rex lifts his paw up and slams it down into the ground, cracking it open and erecting a huge flow of lava. The lava flows quickly at the viruses and engulfs them, leaving the viruses to screech out in agony as they melt in the overwhelmingly hot magma. As the lava recedes some small fire remains, but at least no viruses in sight.

"All right, that takes care of that." Kaden comments.

Rex then walks to the terminal and examines it; looks like the terminals are busted here too. But before he could get a chance to manually overwrite the program lightning shoots out of nowhere and strikes Rex in the back, causing the Navi to scream in terrible shock and pain before falling to the ground as the attack stops. The sudden attack surprised Kaden. "Where did that come from?"

"Hmhmhmhm…" A chuckle rang out, and from out of the shadows came out a Fast Biter Navi. Some smoke emanated from his fingers as he blew it away. "I could have sworn I was keeping everyone out with the doors locked. Maybe I should've turned up the heat in the air ducts to fry your Operator as well!"

Rex twitched from the electric shock, but he gritted his teeth as he tried to get up. This Navi…He's the one responsible for this…For ruining his Operator's day with his father…He won't forgive him…

"Oh come on! That wasn't even a powerful lightning!" Zill snarled as he swatted his arm at the downed Navi. But then he held out his paw to the Navi with his fingers aimed at him. "THIS is a powerful lightning!"

Rex's eyes widened and in an instant he jumped from the ground, dodging the attack in a split second. The lightning struck the ground, causing an explosion that picked up smoke and dirt. With a grunt from the earlier shock Rex stood his ground, his eyes set on the Fast Biter Navi. "Well, look who still has energy to stand!" Zill mocked with a grin.

Rex's eyes widened as he laid his eyes on the Fast Biter as the smoke cleared. "Hey! I know you! You're that Fast Biter that attacked me back at the Garden Area 1 network!"

"Isn't that a hoot?" Zill chuckled, now he remembers this Navi. The one his boss mentioned, the only Sharptooth Navi that's been accepted to the public so far. "My boss has a bone to pick with you for some odd reason. Personally I just want to see you suffer and rip you apart."

"You're the one who ruined my day with my dad!" Kaden shouted in a burst of anger, his hand closing in a tight fist. "I won't forgive you! Get him, Rex!"

"Oh, boo-hoo." Zill mocked. Acknowledging his Operator's command Rex changed his paw into his buster and took quick aim, shooting at the opposing force. Zill wasn't amused however, as he dodged the shot with ease. Rex tried to strike Zill with a barrage of buster shots, but Zill proved to be too fast. To him a simple Fire Water chip could stop him right on his tracks, but Kaden used it in a fit against the viruses.

Zill laughed at the thrill of the moment and stood for a moment and held out his paw, shooting lightning at the Navi. In a gasp Rex jumps and rolls out of the way as the lightning strikes the damaged terminal behind him, exploding in a burst of lightning. Back in the real world Kaden was browsing through his chips to figure out what to use, but the terminal exploding in the terminal caused serious damage to the real world terminal, causing a section of it to explode, startling Kaden as he screamed and covered his face.

"Kaden!" Rex cried as he heard his Operator scream, worried that he might've been hurt. "Are you okay?"

Kaden winced as he drops his battle chips, his right hand got slightly burned from the explosion. He closed his eyes in pain as he tried moving his burned hand. It's not serious, but it stings so much. "Just a scratch…"

Rex gritted his teeth; he knows his Operator got hurt, all because of this monster of a Navi terrorist. He glared at Zill with a ferocious look. With a snarl Rex changed his buster back to his paw and activates his Chip Memory custom program, elongating his claws into pure cybernetic energy and charges at his opponent.

"Well, this is new." Zill commented. He stepped back to avoid a slash and sidestepped to avoid another. In an act of confidence he grabs Rex's shoulder and, with a smirk in his face, sends a handful of lighting through his paw and into Rex's body, shocking the Navi with thousands of bolts. The only sound he could hear was Rex's screams of agony as he's electrocuted.

While that's going on in the security mainframe Booster and Grayscale are still struggling against all the IceRaptor viruses in the mainframe. The trees they are hiding behind in are starting to get completely frozen from the IceRaptor viruses' projectiles. A ParaBomb battle chip materializes in Booster's hand and he chucks it at the IceRaptors. With its power rating of 90 it explodes upon hitting the ground, striking in a huge radius and deleting five IceRaptor viruses. Booster pumps his arm from the success, but he quickly cowers and hides behind the tree as more IceRaptor viruses come and shoots him.

Grayscale closes her eyes and opens them once again; in one eye she sees the IceRaptors and a horizontal row of 3 gun sights. With her programming she moves the gun sights to aim at about four IceRaptors and activates her Battle Chip, out of nowhere a powerful blast strikes where she aimed, deleting those four viruses and three more that were close to them. The blast left three holes behind, at least those will slow the others down.

"Whew." Booster whistles in amazement as he witnessed the power. "Isn't that MrkCan3 Battle Chip awesome?"

"Hmph." Grayscale smirked; it's always easy to amuse her partner. She looks back to see more IceRaptors coming their way. "This won't work, there are too many of them."

"Don't give up!" Asho roots for their Navis. "We can do this!"

Booster gulps, he only wish he was that sure. He peaks and shoots with his buster before taking cover from an array of projectiles. They're severely outnumbered; at this rate they'll be overwhelmed in no time. He doesn't think even Grayscale can go up against this number.

"Woo-hoo!" An excited cry rang out from nowhere. A green and blue Fast Biter Navi jumps out from behind a group of trees with his two arms as yellow gatling-guns. From mid-air he opens fire, the gatling-guns' barrels begin to rotate at high speed and peppering the IceRaptor viruses with a massive amount of bullets, striking their bodies and deleting them at a rapid rate. Those buster gatling-guns are known as the Battle Chip Vulcan2 with an attack rate of 20 per hit, and good luck counting the amount of bullets they shoot per second.

The viruses try to scramble away from the bullets, and while some of the succeed they come across another Net Navi, a blue Sharptooth T-Rex type. He stands there with his arms crossed over his chest with a gentle smile on his face yet shooting a glare at them. The viruses screech at him and take a closer to them, an action which the Navi shakes his head at. "I wouldn't do that if I were you." The viruses didn't listen to his warning and as punishment they are blown up to smithereens from a sudden step forward. The Navi giggles as he looks down at the hole on the ground where he hid a couple of mines from the Mine Battle Chip. "I tried to warn them."

After all is said and done the IceRaptor viruses have all been deleted, this section is safe. Booster and Grayscale come out from behind the trees and they walk to the Navis that just helped them. "Thanks a lot, you two!" Booster gives his thanks with a smile and a great big hug to the two Navis. "I knew you'd come help!"

"Aagh…!" Yu yelps as he's being crushed in the hug. "Booster…Crushing me…!"

"Gack…!" Chomper squirms as he tries to get out of the tight hug. "Can't…Breathe…!"

"Oh!" With an embarrassed chuckle Booster puts the two Navis down, grinning sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head. "Sorry."

Grayscale watched as the two young Navis coughed and gasped for breath after such a crushing hug. While she never was a victim to Booster's crushing arms, she must imagine how strong of a squeeze they give out just by seeing these two highly-trained Navis give in to it so easily. After giving them time to recover she steps forward with a stern look. "Where are the others? I was expecting back up from other Net Saviors, not Net Police officers."

Chomper coughs as he rubs his ribs after the painful squeeze. "You're welcome…" He grumbles sarcastically, at least he was expecting a thank you for helping, but then again this was Grayscale.

""_We're sorry.""_ Chomper's Operator speaks through a direct link. _""The other Net Saviors were called to secure the more important servers on the mainframe. We were scrambled to assist you two.""_

""_Besides,""_ Yu's Operator speaks as well. ""_Us two is better than nothing, right?""_

"That's not the issue at the moment." Kiraa informs them as she presses a few buttons on her PET. "I can't get through to anyone. The malfunctioning wireless equipment here is jamming out wireless communication channel. We need someone to get to the security mainframe to unlock the doors. We're too isolated to effectively address the situation."

"It looks like our only option is to head to the security mainframe from the network." Asho digs into his pocket and takes out a security chip. He slots it into his PET and in the network a think red path starts from Booster's position to the direction of the security mainframe. "Our Navis can get there by following the path."

"Understood." Grayscale nods. She then turns to Chomper and Yu. "Cover our backs."

Yu nods in agreement while Chomper grins and holds up his buster cannon. "Will do!"

"Let's hurry then." Booster mentions to the others and off they go, following the path to the security mainframe. It'll take a while for them to get there, but better late than never. They just hope nothing awful happens before they get there. The Garden City Network doesn't need any more damage to make things worse.

"I hope they make it in time." Asho hopes as he lifts his eyes to Kiraa.

Kiraa on the other hand is just pressing the heck out of her PET's buttons. She was scanning the ports going over ID numbers and the taglines of Net Navis in the SciLab network to try to find their culprit. It takes a while to do, but it's a way to be safe. Her curiosity is caught as she finds two Navis in the network with ID numbers she's not familiar with. One of them seems to have a hacked ID number, while the other's ID number is unknown. And to top it all off, they're in the security mainframe. "Who…?"

"Aagh!" Rex cries in pain as he slams hard on the ground. That's the third time Zill's tackled him. His arms are in a lot of pain, and if you look at his Limb Damage Meter his arms are totally in the red. He's suffering heavy damage, and Kaden has no healing chips of his own to help him.

"Man, you're slow." Zill grins. He holds out his paws and sends another lightning blast at Rex. But he manages to roll out of the way to barely dodge it. He coughs as he covers his nose from the smoke, his lungs lacking oxygen.

"Come on, Rex!" Kaden calls to his Navi. He carefully holds a battle chip in his burnt hand and slots it into his PET. Slowly Rex lifts his aching arm and changes his paw into a Cannon. Despite the ache of holding such a heavy cannon in his arm he takes aim and fires, missing the first shot by miles before slowly getting the right aim. But by the time he did so Zill easily avoids the shots, leaving Rex pitifully without ammo by the time his aim gets decent.

"Oh come on, what the heck was that?" Zill mocks as he holds up his paw, creating a ball of electricity before chucking it at Rex. The Navi manages to roll out of the way but the ball of electricity explodes too close to him, sending Rex flying back from the explosion and feeling the burning agony of being near it, making him scream in agony.

Kaden's PET began to beep wildly, it was indicating that Rex's arms and legs were critical and he needed to be jacked out to avoid deletion. But Kaden wasn't going to let that happen, he _had_ to defeat this bad guy. He wasn't thinking about Rex's well being, he wanted to get back at this Fast Biter for making his day even worse than it already is. He wanted to delete him, and he was actually risking Rex's life to do it. Besides, Rex can be brought back at worst case scenario. He's just a program.

"Hahaha." Zill laughed as he saw Rex getting up. Now this is a pitiful sight. Rex's missing an arm, it completely de-rezzed from the bicep down. "My gosh…Look at you." Zill teased as he walked over to Rex. "Your arm's de-rezzing and who knows how close your other limbs are to do the same. I guess I should spare you the agony and give you a good deletion! But knowing you pathetic Navis you'll just jack out before that happens."

"N-Never…"

Zill stopped. "Hm?"

"I…I won't jack out…" Rex slowly manages to get up to his feet, trembling from the agony of his limbs. "I won't give up…I'm not going to fail my Operator…This day was important to him…I won't forgive anyone who gets in-between him and his father…"

Zill grins, so that's his plan. "That's funny, because as I recall you were doing just that only a few moments ago." Rex flinched upon hearing that, but Zill continues. "Yeah. I was in the security mainframe long before the alarms sounded. I managed to spy through the cameras and heard everything. Sounds like you got on your Operator's nerves to consider reprogramming you. Why go on if he's just going to throw you away like that?"

Rex grits his teeth as he remembers those painful words he heard Kaden say. Kaden was hearing too and was watching how Rex's morale and spirit began to crumble. He wasn't expecting for Rex to take it this badly. After all, he wouldn't remember any of it if he does get reprogrammed, right? What does it matter?

"Because…" Rex was trembling, but he kept his glare at Zill. "Because Kaden is special to me…He's my best friend, my partner…And I'd do anything for him…I just want to see him happy…"

"You just want to see him happy?" Zill smirks and grabs Rex by the neck in a sudden move. With a tight grip he lifts him off his feet and dangles him in the air, choking him to squeeze the life out of him. "Haha! Then I'll do him a favor and delete you!"

"Ack…Gachk…" Rex chokes in the grasp. Despite his left arm de-rezzing he grasps Zill's arm with his right paw, resisting from being deleted by the choke. "Even if he…Reprograms me…I'll still stand by him…I'll never forget him…Despite all the bad things we've gone through…I'll never…Forget when I…Fought with him to get him out of bed…Even if my heart changes…I'll always remember him as I am now…"

Kaden trembles as he watches Rex struggle so strongly. Despite knowing he wanted to reprogram him, he still continues to fight on with such passion and courage. Could it be that he was wrong? Is Rex more than just a program? Is his opinion on all Net Navi being mere programs all just ignorance? To reprogram Rex…That'd be like killing somebody and remaking him again. He was going to basically kill his own Navi. Tear apart his soul…

Does he really want that? Was he going to let a few simple arguments seriously consider in changing Rex? Would he really want to play God with these kinds of programs?

No…Net Navis are more than just programs…They're as real as him…

"Hahah, such dedication!" Zill squeezes tighter around Rex's neck as he just grins away at the Navi's pathetic speech. "We mean nothing to humans! We're just programs! We may love our Operators and they might love us back, but once they find a better Navi they'll throw us away! That's why I dedicate myself to be as strong as I can for my Operator!"

"You're wrong!" Kaden suddenly shouts in anger into his PET. "I wouldn't…No, I would _never_ get rid of my Navi!"

Rex slightly opens his eyes through the pain. "K…Kaden…"

"I…Once thought just like that…That Net Navis were just programs…I always wanted to Net Battle with them…To have them help with my homework, to roam the network with them…Sure, I always felt hurt and pained to see Navis in pain…But I thought they would never be lost forever, you could always back them up and they'll return…" Kaden bites his lower lip as he continues. "But no…That's just too much…I know now that Net Navis are much more than just mere programs…They're living beings too…We program them and give them life…But they're just as real…" Kaden wipes the tears from his eyes and looks back into his PET. "I'm sorry, Rex! I'm sorry I ever considered reprogramming you! I don't want to change you if it means your heart will ache! You're my best friend too and I wouldn't change you for the world!"

"Kaden…I-Gaaah!" Rex was suddenly cut off as Zill crushes his neck in his grip. He can't take this pathetic crying anymore! He was going to silence them!

""_This is getting boring, Zill. Finish it!"" _Zill's Operator, Akira, commands.

Zill growls furiously. "My pleasure!"

The grip around his neck tightens and Rex is gasping for breath. He tries in vain to break out of the grip, but just struggling is just making it worse as Zill's claws dig deeper into his skin. Kaden coughs and grasps his neck. Despite no one being there in the room with him he could feel his neck being tighten, as if he's being chocked too. What the…?

As Rex is put more through the choke the pain around Kaden's neck intensifies. The more Kaden thinks about a way to help his Navi the more unbearable it gets. Rex's neck is pricked a bit by Zill's claws, and surprisingly a small cut forms on Kaden's neck as a little blood comes out of it.

"R…Rex…" Kaden say in-between breaths. "I know you can do it…" He grits his teeth as something starts to happen. The phenomenon that happened before at the nuclear warehouse is happening again. His clothes began to sway and a faint aura starts to form around him. "Fight him…I'm here for you…"

Rex's eyes grew wider and narrowed into a dangerous slit, he could feel his hit points restoring and his strength growing. This puzzled Zill as he felt the strange power around his victim. "Wha…What's going on here?"

Back at the mainframe the four Navis are running toward the security mainframe. They were soon getting shot at by IceRaptors following them. They knew they couldn't keep running with these viruses in two, so two certain Navis decide to volunteer for the aid.

"You two go on ahead!" Yu cries to Grayscale and Booster. "Chomper and I are going to have some fun back here!"

Booster looks back and nods. "Be careful, okay?"

The two Navis nod before coming to a stop, turning tail and training their buster cannons at the incoming viruses. "So how many do you bet I'll delete by the time this is over?" Yu grins to his T-Rex partner.

Chomper giggles and responds. "Two hundred zenny says less than ten!"

"Two hundred? Man, that's pocket change!" Yu laughs. "You're on!" And with that the two Navis charge to take on the viruses. They jump and roll out of the way of the icy projectiles as they return fire with their busters, buying Grayscale and Booster some time for them to get to the security mainframe. IceRaptor viruses fell like flies from Chomper and Yu's buster shots and their strategically use of battle chips.

"I hope those two will be okay." Booster comments as he still runs alongside Grayscale to the direction of the security mainframe.

"They're trained professionals, Booster. I'm sure they'll survive."

"I hope so…Whoa!" Booster and Grayscale stop in their tracks as IceRaptor viruses are approaching them from up ahead, a large number of them. Looks like whoever hacked into the network knew they would try to stop him at the security mainframe, and he prepared. "Good grief…" Booster sighed. "It can't get any worse than this…" He takes a step back and watches at the viruses carefully as they begin to approach them.

"What do we do now, Kiraa?" Asho asks his partner. He didn't like all these viruses in the network. And he hated the thought of his Navi going up against such an army.

Kiraa closes her eyes and responds calmly. "What we always do in these dire situations." They had no choice, and Kiraa knew it. She concentrated as Grayscale did the same and her clothes then began to sway. Asho gasped and took a step back as a faint aura began to form around her. Soon enough her clothes and hair swayed as if there was wind in the room. The power was overwhelming, and Asho knew what Kiraa just did.

"Kiraa…" Asho began to speak. "You're…Using Full Synchro!"

Kiraa looked at her partner, the sense of power overwhelming as some of the terminals were beginning to go a little crazy from the sparks and atmosphere. "Any better ideas to power through all those viruses?" Asho slowly shook his head, an action at which Kiraa smiled a bit. "Well? I know you're not going to let me have all of the fun."

Asho slowly nodded, knowing what this meant. He took a deep sigh and he closed his eyes, an action which Booster did the same. They both focused and then they opened their eyes with a sudden cry. "Full Synchro!"

"This…This can't be possible!" Zill shouted in frustration. Rex was getting better instead of getting worse! His left arm was regenerating and his wounds were healing. What in the world is happening to this Navi?

It's as if Rex and Kaden are in the same situation and at the same place at once. Kaden could feel a grip around his neck as if Zill himself was holding him by the throat. In a fit of rage Kaden moved his arm as if to grab his attacker's arm, an action which Rex did the same with both his arms. He squeezed Zill's arm and with his foot he kicked off of his chest, jumping out of his grip and knocking Zill down to the ground.

"Agh! You little…!" Zill was about to insult the Navi but he stopped. He sensed the overwhelming power as Rex stood there in a slight hunched down position, energy surrounding the Navi as a faint aura was around him. Kaden was sort of in the same pose, and he felt his heart beating rapidly. A red mark began to form over Kaden's right eye, but to him it was unnoticeable. There was no pain or anything. Then, he felt another heart, as if he had two of them beating in his chest. He could also hear another person's breathing, as if there was somebody else standing next to him.

This heart beat…Is it…Is it Rex's heart beat?

"This is…" Kaden began.

"This is the same thing that happened to us back at the nuclear warehouse." Rex finished.

"Which means…" Kaden grinned, a sheer overwhelming feeling of confidence filling his body. "Which means we can win this! Let's go, Rex! Battle routine, set!"

Rex grins and nods. "Execute!"

In the network Grayscale and Booster, both of them fully synchronized with their Operators, are making their way toward the security mainframe and fighting their way through the IceRaptor viruses. Booster, with his massive fists and arms, punches and tears through any viruses in his way. He sees a few of them coming toward him and he slams his fist into the ground, creating a fissure that travels toward them and swallows them up, deleting them in place. Such power and speed…Is this the significant power up Navis get from Full Synchro?

"Graaah!" Booster cries as he grabs an IceRaptor and throws it to a group of them, deleting them from the powerful throw. It's incredible, both Asho and Kiraa don't even have use for their PETs to operate their Navis aside from the occasional delivery of Battle Chips.

Grayscale slashes and bites her way through the hordes of viruses. She uses her tail to strike viruses away and her claws to tear through the viruses in front of her. She suddenly stops as her eyes glow red and she sucks in as much breath as she could and, when she was at full capacity, blows it all out in one huge fire breath blast! The breath of fire expands into a huge wall of fire, burning away every single virus in its path by the touch. Such is the power of the FlameBreath Blast mega-class chip.

"Hehe, made a path for us, huh?" Booster comments with a grin after deleting two more viruses.

Grayscale rolls her eyes from the comment. "Let's just hurry before they come back again."

Booster nods in agreement and they both rush through the cleared path. Thanks to their powered up Full Synchro state they rush with extremely impressive speeds. Meanwhile Rex is showing the same power boost as well. He jumps and runs as he easily avoids Zill's electric attacks. He skids to a stop and shoots with his buster cannon, the blast surprisingly fast strikes Zill across the chest and knocks him down to the ground.

"Aaagh!" He grunts in pain. With a snarl he gets up and summons three IceRaptor viruses to back him up. The viruses screech and charge, but Rex wasn't phased. He throws his arm out and his claws become longer and deadlier as he activates his Chip Memory program. He charges forward and leaps in time, slashing through the viruses and landing behind them with ease. Rex lifts his glaring eyes at Zill and charges once again and leaps with a roar, ready to strike him down. Zill tried to defend, but it happened so fast we have to replay everything at slow motion to even see what happened.

Zill tried to lift his paw up to strike Rex down with his lightning attack, but Rex knocked his arm away with his other arm and, upon landing right in front of Zill, he thrusted his arm forward and impaled his claws deep into Zill's chest. If this was a Cyber Sword he would've penetrated the other end through Zill's back.

"Gack…" Zill coughs. Pixels of data come out of the wound and a drop of cybernetic blood drools down from his mouth. He couldn't believe this runt actually got him. "You…" He manages to speak as his eyes are glaring at Rex. "Don't think you…Have won…Because…This is still the beginning…!" And with that, Zill disintegrates into particles of data and jacks out, leaving Rex behind.

Rex watches the Sharptooth leave as he stands up straight. It's over. A sudden pain to his chest causes Rex to gasp in pain and drop to his knees, breathing heavily as he clutches his chest. His power boost, it's gone.

Kaden is in the same position, on his knees and clutching his chest. Whatever happened to Rex and himself is gone now. "That…" Kaden manages to speak between breathes as he slowly manages to stand up. "What…What was that?"

""_Full Synchro in a nut-shell.""_

Kaden jumped, startled by the voice from out of nowhere. He looked into his PET, wondering if someone jacked the line. In the mainframe Rex slowly backs away, gulping from the frightening ordeal he's in now. "Kaden…There's another Navi here…"

Indeed. In front of him stalks a green and orange Alimon Navi. This one came out of nowhere, Rex didn't even sense him. Friend or foe? Whoever he is he's standing there, and he's scary looking with that armor.

"Don't be afraid, little one." The Alimon Navi speaks. "I mean no harm."

""_I must say, I'm surprised.""_ That same voice spoke out from Kaden's PET, no doubt the Alimon's Operator who joined the frequency channel to speak to Kaden. ""When I read the report that someone like you accomplished Full Synchro I was skeptical. But seeing it first hand, you two truly impress me.""

Kaden blinks. "Full Synchro…?"

Rex takes a step forward, curious to find out what this is. "Tell me, what's Full Synchro?"

The Alimon Navi hesitates to answer the question. He blinks and gives a slow nod, receiving a confirmation from his Operator to go ahead and tell. "Full Synchro is a phenomenon that can only be achieved when the Operator and Net Navi are in complete harmony with one another. When in this state, the Navi's fighting capabilities are significantly increased, in addition the Operator and Navi's wills are fused together, both becoming one consciousness. This in turn demolishes the barrier between the real world and the cyber world, removing the delay between command and reaction, which can make a big difference between life and death."

""_However, it does have its dangers."" _The Alimon's Operator continues. _""Such as the barrier between the real world and the cyber world is removed, the Operator is at risk to the same danger as the Net Navi.""_

As he heard this warning Kaden rubbed his neck, his thumb touching the wound on the side of it. So that pain to his neck…He was feeling the same Rex was feeling; getting chocked by that Navi…And the cut, a wound from Zill's claws. Full Synchro…What power…

But…Was he and Rex really in perfect harmony? Earlier today they were at each other's throats, how could they be in perfect harmony? Could it be…Could it be that Kaden's apology and his complete understandment on Net Navis have caused the two of them to forgive and become perfectly harmonized with one another? There's still so many questions left to answer…

"Now…" The Navi looks at Rex with a stern look. "You have achieved the status by chance, but under no circumstances must you try to emulate the situation to achieve it again! You were lucky your Operator didn't get seriously injured!"

Rex winced from the warning. He could've felt Kaden with him during Full Synchro, and he somehow knew he was getting hurt along with him. It was a frightening power, to fuse consciousness with your Operator but in exchange he is vulnerable to the same damage he gets. What if he gets deleted while in Full Synchro? Would that mean Kaden would…Die?

The Alimon Navi turned his head away, hearing a commotion outside of the security mainframe. Grayscale must be nearby. He turns to Rex and snarls at him. "You should leave. Now!"

"What? Wait a minute, but…!"

""_We'll surely meet again."" _The Operator commented before jacking his Alimon Navi out and leaving the communication frequency, leaving Kaden and Rex alone.

"…Let's jack out too." Rex speaks out to his Operator.

Kaden nods and presses a button on his PET, jacking his Net Navi out just in time as a few seconds later Grayscale and Booster arrive at the security mainframe. They were puzzled to see the place empty, but it was obvious a fight broke out in here. But now's not the time to ponder. Together, the two Net Savior Navis boot up an emergency program that only they have the keys to and unlock every door in the building. The sounds of locks unlocking could be heard everywhere, and all of the SciLab employees were free to go about once again.

As for Kaden, he stood there looking at his Navi with a smile, who in turn smiled back to his Operator. Everything is well again. But questions were still in Kaden's mind as the boy slowly lowered his PET and stared out in space as he remains alone in the room for a while longer. Full Synchro…The power to fuse an Operator's and Navi's consciousness into one.

* * *

"Well played, Akira…" A voice spoke out. The room was a dark one in SciLab's building. The only thing housing this room was a computer chip, almost identical to a Battle Chip. Held in place by a few metallic arms in the middle of a case, it clearly must be something dangerous to be housed this way. What does it contain?

"I gave you one hour, and you clearly used it well." This mysterious intruder opens the case, and with an evil grin he sticks his hand in and grabs the computer chip, removing it out from its position and bringing it closer to his eyes for a closer inspection. The security was still down, so no alarms or anything of the sort to alarm of the robbery.

"I thank you, my friend. The prize is ours…" And with that, the mysterious intruder vanishes without a trace, but not before leaving behind a fake computer chip, identical to the one he just stole. Everything was done before the security mainframe could've been rebooted. A perfect heist…

* * *

It was the morning after the SciLab incident, and after a good scolding to Kaden for disappearing on them after they agreed to help in Haruko's shop things went back to normal…Well, there was at least one more thing left to do before everything would turn back to normal…

_I always saw Net Navis as incredibly smart AI programs. I never thought of them as equal to us…Where a simple backup could solve everything._

Kaden looked out the window of his mother's car. He was properly dressed in black, which was a rare sight for someone like Kaden to be seen in. But today was special…It was for his friend.

_I thought Net Navis were easy to program. I thought reprogramming their personalities was easy and you could've done it whenever you wished without the Navi's care. Yeah, I just saw them as really smart programs._

The car came to a stop and the doors opened. Kaden stepped out of the car with his mother and his father. It was a surprise his father managed to get some time off for this. But like mentioned earlier, today was special.

_But then I realized…They were anything but._

They walked together down a sidewalk. Looking around Kaden saw the morbid sight of tomb stones. They were at the Garden City Cemetery. Today was the day that a special someone was going to be put to rest in peace. As they got closer to their desired spot they began seeing a group of people, all dressed in black and together in mourning and prayer.

_I learned that Net Navis are much more than just lines of programming. They could feel pain, sorrow. They could share it with us, like any normal human could._

The Homari family made it to the spot and they saw all their friends; Sally and Stephen's family, Silus' family, Malory's family, acquaintances and friends. But most importantly, Jason's family was there. His father made an emergency flight to Garden City for the occasion. And as expected, Jason's grandparents were there.

_Net Navis are more than just BIO files and file extensions. They have their own unique personality, quirks and feelings. Special things that even a simple back up can't duplicate._

As Kaden's parents went to give their regards and respects to Jason's family Kaden stepped forward to his group of friends. They said their hellos before Kaden stepped forward to his old friend, Jason. Kaden was feeling awful right then and there. Compared to the others, he was the one who spend the least time with Jason during these hard times. The two longtime friends gave each other a hug.

In their PETs, their Navis are together in their Friend Room, a huge area where Navis can be together if two or more PETs are in each other's Friend List and when they are close by together. Petrie, Spike, Cera, Ducky and Rex were standing in two rows facing each other, two of them on one side and three of them on the other side.

Walking down in the middle was Littlefoot, in his hand holding the TreeStar he found in the Garden Network after the Network Disaster. To him this TreeStar was special. It reminded him of his mother.

_But most of all, they all have a heart._

Littlefoot continues walking forward to a pedestal tombstone of sort. A special tombstone Jason programmed especially for Littlefoot, in memory of Jason's mother's Net Navi, a Net Navi that was very much Littlefoot's mother. The Net Navi who sacrificed herself to save Littlefoot.

_I should know, because I've felt that heart. I believe they have their own heart._

Just as Littlefoot reaches the tombstone and sets the TreeStar down on the tombstone, Jason is doing the same, a bouquet of flower on his mother's coffin from himself, his grandparents and his father.

"For you, mother." Jason and Littlefoot say at the same time as they set their gifts on their mothers' grave.

The Navis stand in a row in front of the tombstone to pay their respects as in the real world the families stand as the coffin is slowly lowered down into the hole where her grave will be marked. Everyone watched as not one eye is left dry. Kaden glanced over at Jason, his old friend as he sees some tears running down his cheeks.

_They are living beings just like you and I. And we can't play God with them whenever we want. We can't go reprogramming them because we dislike their personality, or they have a wea kness we want to change, or just because we want a Net Navi of a different series._

The Navis close their eyes and place their paws together to pray for the peaceful rest of their lost loved ones just as the humans do the same. Today marks the dawn of a brand new day…

_We must respect them like any other human, because they are in essence the same as us. They have a heart, a soul, a will, a consciousness._

Littlefoot opens his eyes as tears begin to roll down his eyes. He then finds some comfort as his friends gather around him and they all embrace in a group hug.

_And besides, they become our best friends, our partners. And we must work together for a better future, right? A world where both human and Net Navis can co-exist in peace, live together without fear and to work together for a better future._

Jason stands on the freshly marked grave after all is said and done. His mother is now resting in peace. She's now in a better place, and he couldn't feel any more alone…

But then his friends: Sally, Stephen, Silus, Malory and Kaden stand around him, each of them looking at their friend with a smile of confidence. Jason couldn't help but smile back. No, he's never alone, not with these guys around. And with Littlefoot with him as well, he'll never be alone.

_We support each other. That's why Rex and I managed Full Synchro. Because we're both living beings and we can pull together and combine as one to become stronger than ever before. Just like how humans work together to become stronger._

_I felt his anger, his pain and his sorrows that day. That made me realize just how real he is. I felt his heart, his breathing. I know now Net Navis are as real as we are. I won't forget that, ever. Rex is still with me because he wishes so, not because he's installed to my PET or anything. Only a living being would care for me that much to stick by me despite all our arguments and disagreements…_

* * *

"On the next chapter of Land Before Time: Battle Network!"

"Man, that Full Synchro is something else! I really want to try it again!"

"But Kaden, didn't that Alimon warned us not to try it again?"

"I know I know, but I can't help it."

"Kaden, I hope you didn't forget about the Great Valley Square's festival today."

"Oh yeah! I can't believe they managed to fix the network in three weeks! Dr. Isaac's experiment was incredible!"

"Trouble, Kaden! Ducky's little sister was kidnapped! And she hasn't even hatched yet!"

" What? That's no good! Jack in! Rex! Power up!"

"Next time! 'An egg'citing adventure! The second arc!'"

"Hey Rex, check this egg'celent email I got from my mom!"

"Ugh…Kaden…"


End file.
